As well as avoiding some of the risks inherent to general anaesthesia, the research also showed that treatments that used to take one hour or more, now take around 15 to 20 minutes. This is partly because of the time saved by not having to prepare and administer anaesthesia, but also because the children who know they are going to watch videos are more cooperative.

Aguas said: "Now in our clinic, video has almost completely replaced anaesthesia, resulting in reduced treatment times and reduction of stress for the young patients and their families."


She also told the conference that the projector was inexpensive and simple to install: "In radiotherapy, everything is usually very expensive but in this case it was not. We bought a projector and, with the help of college students, we created a support to fix the device to the patient couch. Using video is saving money and resources by reducing the need for anaesthesia."

Aguas and her colleagues continue to study children who have been treated since the projector was installed and they are extending the project to include adult patients who are claustrophobic or anxious.

President of ESTRO, Professor Yolande Lievens, head of the department of radiation oncology at Ghent University Hospital, Belgium, said: "The success of this project is good news for young patients, their families and their medical teams. Simply by installing a projector and showing videos, the team have reduced the need for anaesthesia and reduced anxiety for these children. For parents this means they no longer have to watch their child going under a general anaesthetic and then in to the recovery room after treatment every day for weeks on end. In addition, the use of videos had a positive impact on the workflow in paediatric radiotherapy, which further increased the positive effect observed by the caregivers as well."

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