Increased risk of general anesthesia for high-risk patients undergoing magnetic resonance imaging.

Objective: The aim of this study was to review mortality rate pertinent to anesthesia in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) settings and compare it with operating room (OR) mortality rate.

Materials And Methods: A total of 47,389 anesthetics have been administered to pediatric patients in the Montefiore Medical Center between February 1998 and September 2007, of which 11,700 (25%) were administered for procedures performed outside the OR. Our data collection system allows us to separate outside OR locations into 2 separate groups.