Hypnosis instead of general anesthesia for some pediatric surgeries

New techniques in medical imaging are increasingly using hypnosis to reduce anxiety in young people and reduce general anesthesia.

TVA Nouvelles was able to gain exclusive access to a hypnosis session with 16-year-old Alexandre at the Montreal Children’s Hospital who must undergo a biopsy after receiving a kidney transplant.

This is the fourth time Alexandre has undergone a biopsy under hypnosis. It is said that it feels great when you wake up.

“I feel good and I have images in my head. She guides me,” said the patient.

“Hypnosis is very good,” he says.

“We use language to detach, to enter into ourselves. As we close our perceptual fields, we forget what’s outside to really focus on one thing,” explains Vicki Fortin, a medical imaging technologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.

It’s a pilot project that was launched in 2019 after a medical imaging technologist visited Europe, where the practice is widespread.

Today, the Montreal Children’s Hospital has five technicians trained in hypnosis.

In the last five years, about 200 young people have opted for hypnosis, which is practiced only in some cases.

The use of this technique allows anesthesiologists to reallocate to other procedures as general anesthesia is not required when hypnosis is used.

However, local anesthesia is necessary as hypnosis does not completely eliminate pain.

Montreal Children’s Hospital hopes to train other caregivers who can practice medical hypnosis in other units.