Paediatric nuclear medicine procedures: routine sedation or management of anxiety?

Abstract

In our department, examinations of long duration are performed without sedation. It is exceptional that a test has to be postponed because of lack of cooperation by the patient. Good quality images, taking into account the recommended paediatric amounts of radioactivity, are achieved for procedures such as MIBG whole body scanning (10 min frame-1), gastro-oesophageal reflux studies (60 min acquisition), renography and furosemide challenge (45 min) or pinhole views for bone or renal DMSA studies (20-30 min). While drug sedation remains in some conditions the only way to obtain a satisfactory nuclear medicine examination in children, we still believe that in most cases this can be achieved by taking the emotional life of the child into account. For that purpose, people in charge of the paediatric procedure have to be adequately trained.