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.
A mildly radioactive dye is injected on the day of the scan. This is quite harmless as the amount of radioactivity is very small. A few hours later the scan is done. Your child lies on a cough with the camera above him. This does not hurt and takes about half an hour.