Daily general anaesthesia for radiotherapy in unco-operative patients: ingredients for successful management.

An unco-operative patient requiring daily radiation therapy presents a difficult clinical problem. After reviewing the paediatric oncology literature addressing the use of general anaesthesia for short medical procedures, we have developed checklists of procedural guidelines and monitoring equipment for the safe use of daily anaesthesia in adult patients who require a fractionated course of radiation therapy. We illustrate this by describing the successful treatment of a woman with autism and Hodgkin's disease who required daily general anaesthesia for immobilization during a 4-week course of radiation therapy. Propofol was used as the primary drug and was not associated with any adverse side-effects. There was no development of tolerance.