Age as a decisive factor in general anesthesia use in pediatric proton beam therapy.

Background: Proton therapy for pediatric cancer patients is effective treatments. Young children have difficulties staying still during irradiation, so general anesthesia is often required. This study investigated the indication for general anesthesia in pediatric proton therapy. Methods: We focused on cancer patients under 15 years old who underwent proton therapy at Southern TOHOKU General Hospital, Fukushima, Japan from April 2016 to December 2018. Background information and anesthesia/treatment protocols were retrospectively extracted from the electronic medical record. The anesthesia and non-anesthesia group were compared to evaluate factors determining the need for general anesthesia . Results: We analyzed 32 patients who received 285 irradiations. The median age was 5 years old (range: 1–15), and 13 patients (40.6%) were female. Twelve (37.5%) patients were treated with general anesthesia. In the general anesthesia group, airway management using laryngeal mask was performed in 11 patients (91.6%). Age was significantly lower in the general anesthesia group than in the non-anesthetized group (p < 0.001). Considering all background factors, only age was strongly associated with anesthesia in the univariate logistic regression models: odds ratio 0.55 [95% confidence interval 0.35–0.86] ( P < 0.01). Adverse events included nausea and vomiting during and after irradiation, and no fatal complications were observed. Conclusion: Age is one of the most important factors determining the need for general anesthesia for PBT in children. it will be necessary to determine the guidelines for accumulation and collection of data between institutions and the indication of general anesthesia/sedation for radiation therapy including PBT.