Pediatric Anesthesia ISSN 1155-5645 REVIEW ARTICLE Anesthesia for interventional radiology Mary Landrigan-Ossar & Craig D. McClain Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA Keywords Summary radiology; interventional; arteriovenous Pediatric patients in the neurointerventional radiology setting pose the dual malformations; cerebral angiography; challenges of caring for relatively sick patients in the outfield environment. embolization; therapeutic; radiocontrast For safe and successful practice, the anesthesiologist must not only under- agents; moyamoya disease stand the nuances of pediatric anesthesia and the physiologic demands of the Correspondence cerebral lesions. They must also help maintain a team-based approach to safe, Mary Landrigan-Ossar MD, PhD, compassionate care of the child in this challenging setting. In this review arti- Department of Anesthesiology, cle, we summarize key aspects of success for several of these topics. Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, 300 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA Email: mary.landrigan-ossar@childrens. harvard.edu Section Editor: Sulpicio Soriano Accepted 25 March 2014 doi:10.1111/pan.12411 procedures requiring anesthesia, both diagnostic and Introduction therapeutic, which are performed on the pediatric The care of pediatric patients in interventional radiology patient in the neurointerventional radiology suite. (IR) exemplifies the credo that ‘children are not small adults’. In the adult IR suite, an anesthesiologist is a rar- Safety ity, and the vast majority of procedures are accom- plished in patients who are awake or lightly sedated. Patient and provider safety must both be considered This is not the case in the pediatric neurointerventional when working in the neurointerventional suite. Patient setting; many if not most procedures require the safety concerns in large part can be categorized under assistance of an anesthesiologist for safe and successful the greater rubric of safety for non-OR anesthesia completion. As an essential part of the pediatric neuro- (NORA). The NORA environment has long been recog- interventional radiology environment, the anesthesiolo- nized as presenting unique challenges to safe patient care gist perforce plays many roles. The physiologic and (1). These challenges notwithstanding, there are many developmental effects of anesthesia on children of all factors that can be modified to enhance patient safety in ages must be well understood. The anesthesiologist the outfield. requires as well an understanding of the physiology of It is commonly recognized that older anesthesia the cerebral lesions to be treated, the requirements for equipment is to be found in the NORA milieu (2,3). successful treatment and the potential effects of the pro- Closed-claims data have demonstrated that patients in posed treatment. In addition to these obvious responsi- the NORA environment are more likely to suffer more bilities, the anesthesiologist in this outfield environment serious harm, and inadequate monitoring is cited as a has an important role to play in developing a collabora- contributor (4,5). The neurointerventional suite, where tive approach to patient care and safety, as there is lengthy complex cases are performed on sicker patients, rarely a situation in which a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach should have anesthesia equipment that is standardized will suffice. In this article, we will review some of the with that being used in the main operating room. This 698 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Pediatric Anesthesia 24 (2014) 698–702 M. Landrigan-Ossar and C.D. McClain Anesthesia for interventional radiology promotes safety not only by allowing the use up-to-date technology for complex patients, but also by reducing the chance of operator unfamiliarity with infrequently used devices. The distance between the interventional suite and the main operating room cannot be changed in the absence of a dedicated IR-operating room, which is in many cases prohibitively expensive. What can be accomplished is the institution of a culture of safety in the IR suite. Communication, particularly for emergencies, between the IR suite and the ‘mother ship’ should be standard- ized (6), so that anesthesia staff can be efficiently sum- moned when needed. However, it cannot be strongly enough emphasized that the staff in the IR suite are the closest resource in case of emergency. By inculcating a Figure 1 Representative setup of room demonstrating appropriate team-based approach to patient care, which includes protection for the anesthesiologist. Note wrap-around lead apron, simulation of emergency events, a well-coordinated lead glasses, portable shield between anesthesiologist and the two group of nurses and technologists in situ can assist the X-ray sources (anteroposterior and lateral in this case). anesthesiologist in the event of a crisis (7,8). Intravenous contrast is almost invariably used in neu- compliance with local regulations. As most neurointer- rointerventional procedures, and thus the anesthesiolo- ventions are performed with biplane imaging, the dose gist must be well-versed in the recognition and to the anesthesiologist is increased, making these pre- treatment of contrast reaction. Reactions to contrast, cautions even more necessary. whose mechanism is likely anaphylactoid (9), occur in 1–3% of cases (10), and most commonly occur within Cerebral angiogram the first hour of administration. Reactions can range from rash to full-blown bronchospasm and cardiovascu- Diagnostic cerebral angiography is the most common lar collapse. Treatment is supportive and can include and least physiologically deranging neurointerventional antihistamines, steroids, and hemodynamic and/or air- procedure performed on pediatric patients. While nonin- way support when indicated (11). Patients at high risk of vasive imaging modalities such as computed tomogra- contrast reaction, such as those with a prior history of a phy (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have reaction or a history of asthma or atopy, should be pre- become increasingly useful in the elucidation of intracra- treated with steroid and antihistamine. nial pathology, cerebral angiography is still considered Patient safety is obviously at the forefront of the the ‘gold standard’ for the diagnosis of neurovascular anesthesiologist’s mind, but this should not be at the pathology (16). Some of the more common indications expense of personal safety. It is incumbent on every for cerebral angiography include hemorrhage, stroke anesthesiologist to appropriately protect themselves (including that from vasculopathies such as Moyamoya from radiation. Radiation is particularly insidious, as disease) and postoperative evaluation of cerebrovascular there are no external indicators such as heat or light interventions (17). that potentially harmful exposure is occurring. There is The requirements for a successful procedure are few: no minimum acceptable dose of radiation, and the an immobile patient and the ability in most cases to pro- effects of exposure–increased incidence of cancer or cat- vide intermittent moments of apnea. General endotra- aracts–do not manifest themselves for decades (12,13). cheal anesthesia is most commonly used in children to In the procedure room, anesthesiologists’ exposure to provide these conditions (17). While a more mature radiation is threefold greater than that of radiologists’ patient may be able to cooperate with this procedure on the opposite side of the procedure table due to scat- with no adjunct or with light sedation to relieve anxiety, ter radiation (14). To reduce exposure, anesthesiologists any deeper levels of sedation increase the risk that the should wear lead aprons, preferably wrap-around, and patient will be unable to comply with breath holding. In protective eyewear. Portable lead shields should be situations where sedation is deemed to be the appropri- placed between the radiation source and the anesthesi- ate choice from an anesthetic perspective, it is essential ologist (Figure 1). If feasible, the anesthesiologist to communicate with the neurointerventionalist and should leave the room during angiography ‘runs’ (15). confirm that the image quality without apnea will be Portable dosimeters should be worn and monitored in acceptable. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 699 Pediatric Anesthesia 24 (2014) 698–702 Anesthesia for interventional radiology M. Landrigan-Ossar and C.D. McClain Considerations for anesthetic management of patients are nephrologic consequences of contrast administra- for this relatively quick procedure (generally less than tion. 1 h) include blood pressure, fluid management, and postprocedure care. Care must be taken, particularly Therapeutic neurointerventions with induction of anesthesia, to avoid hypotension which can put patients with a vasculopathy such as Indications for neurointerventional procedures include Moyamoya at risk of cerebral hypoperfusion (18). On embolization of intracranial vascular anomalies, such as the other hand, acute hypertension, which could precipi- arteriovenous malformations (AVM) (Figure 2), arte- tate catastrophic bleeding in an unstable aneurysm or riovenous fistulae and aneurysms, targeted injection of arteriovenous malformation (AVM), must also be intra-arterial chemotherapy for tumors, and presurgical avoided. An arterial line for this short procedure is gen- embolization of both AVMs and tumors of the head erally unnecessary.