"MRI is the hardest 'easy' anaesthetic: a still, cooperative patient in a dim tunnel far from help, in a room where a steel laryngoscope becomes a bullet and the magnet never switches off. Safety here is about the environment as much as the patient — and the golden rule when things go wrong is to get the patient out of the magnet room."
How to use this topic — CritCare.in.Anaesthesia in the MRI Suite
MRI is a form of remote-location / non-operating-room anaesthesia (NORA): an unfamiliar, isolated environment with limited access to the patient during scanning — plus a powerful, always-on static magnetic field, switching gradient fields and radiofrequency pulses that create hazards found nowhere else in the hospital.
- Respect the safety zones and the projectile hazard; use MR-conditional equipment & monitoring; deliver a NORA anaesthetic to the full standard you would in theatre; and if the patient deteriorates, evacuate them out of the magnet room before resuscitating.
The Environment & Safety Zones
The magnetic field, why it is always on, the four ACR safety zones and ferromagnetic screening.
⚠️02 · HAZARDSThe MRI Hazards
Projectile effect, RF heating & burns, cryogen quench, acoustic noise, gadolinium & monitoring interference.
💉03 · SELECTION & TECHNIQUEPatient Selection & Technique
Who needs anaesthesia, implant screening, sedation vs GA, and induce-then-transfer vs MR-conditional in-room delivery.
📟04 · MONITORING & EMERGENCIESMonitoring & Emergencies
MR-conditional monitoring, remote-location standards and the golden rule — evacuate the patient to resuscitate.
🎓05 · PEARLSMistakes, Pearls & References
Common mistakes, MR-safety terminology, exam pearls and references.