Cartoons may be an adequate replacement for general anaesthetic when children receive radiotherapy, a European conference heard yesterday.
General anaesthetic is used to ensure children stay still during hours of treatment – but allowing them to watch a video can be as effective, according to Belgian doctors.
The doctors at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Brussels, installed a video projector in 2014 so that it could display films directly inside a radiography machine.
The reported their findings at the European Society for Radiology and Oncology conference in Vienna, Austria.
They say that the projector reduced the proportion of child patients needing anaesthesia to 33%. Beforehand, some 83% of paediatric patients were anaesthetised.
Researcher Catia Aguas said: "Now in our clinic, video has almost completely replaced anaesthesia, resulting in reduced treatment times and reduction of stress for the young patients and their families.
"Radiotherapy can be very scary for children. It’s a huge room full of machines and strange noises, and the worst part is that they’re in the room alone during their treatment.
"Since we started using videos, children are a lot less anxious. Now they know that they’re going to watch a movie of their choice, they’re more relaxed and once the movie starts it’s as though they travel to another world.
"SpongeBob, Cars and Barbie have been popular movie choices with our patients."
Abstract no: OC-0546. Video Launching during Irradiation – an alternative to anaesthesia in paediatric patients?
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