A Munson Medical Center nurse is on a mission to make sure more patients can handle magnetic resonance imaging procedures. It's called situational claustrophobia.
Patients lie on a table that slides in either head first or feet first.
Munson does 15 to 20 MRI scans a day, six days a week. Klintworth said at least one person a day is unable to go through with the procedure. That's consistent with nationwide statistics showing 5 to 10 percent of MRI patients can't handle it. Much of that could be avoided, Klintworth said, if more patients take oral sedatives before coming in for the procedure. She will soon be sending a letter to area doctors, especially neurologists and orthopedists, who order MRIs most frequently, asking them to prescribe Xanax for patients when an MRI is ordered.