Small children will require a general anaesthetic or sedation. The scan takes about half an hour and a parent can usually stay with their child. The way magnetic waves are altered as they pass through different cells and tissues in the body is used to make a computerised image of the part of the body scanned. It does not hurt, there is no radiation, there are no side effects but it is very noisy. The scan can take up to an hour, it is important to keep still, so small children may need to be sedated.
Parents can stay in the room.
Occasionally your child may complain of headaches or backache for a few hours or days afterwards but this is not common. It is not painful but your child has to lie still and will have some cold jelly on the area to be scanned. Young children may require sedation, if they are unable to keep still enough. This scan will be performed at another hospital between treatments and this is to monitor heart function which may be affected by some drugs.