magnetic resonance imaging

Children from all over Estonia visit Tallinn Children’s Hospital, the biggest children’s hospital in Estonia. Every year over 12 000 children are being treated here, almost 400 of them are being treated at the intensive care department. Over 165 000 outpatients visit the hospital and over 6000 kids are operated every year.

In order to diagnose the kids in time and to carry out necessary medical examinations Tallinn Children’s Hospital is in great need of modern MRI.

MRI makes it possible to diagnose in time different diseases including neurosystem-, rheumatological-, orthopedic- and oncological diseases and developmental disorders. Mainly the soft tissues, muscles, joints and changes in bones are examined. The detailed MRI images often make it possible to diagnose diseases that cannot be evaluated by other radiology me thods.

MRI is a modern and more widely used examination method that with the help of strong magnetic field makes it possible to get 2-and 3-dimensonal images of different parts of bodies and organs. It is especially important for children that no ionizing or x-ray radiation is used by MRI. The MRI procedure doesn’t need any special preparation for patients, it is harmless and painless for kids. During MRI procedure the patients do not get injections and no blood tests are taken - that kids are often afraid of. Sometimes it is necessary to fix the foot or knee with the help of support system or velcro – it is important to keep the part of the body in a comfortable and immobile position. MRI examination can be used even starting with the newborns.

MRI equipment is like a tunnel surrounded by magnetic field. There is a 1,5tesla magnetic field in the kids’ equipment – very strong magnetic field is not suitable for examination of newborns. The patient lies down on the examination table and then it is transported into the tunnel with diameter of 60-70 cm. In old fashioned MRI equipment the procedure was about 40 minutes long, but the procedure by modern and innovative equipment is only about 25 minutes- this is a very important factor for children.

Tallinn Children’s Hospital has never had MRI equipment and the kids who need the procedure are mostly having it in Põhja Eesti Regionaalhaigla. The necessity for MRI examination procedures in our hospital grow constantly. In 2022 the patients of our hospital had over 3000 different MRI procedures. In the future we could have the all the MRI procedures in our own hospital with a modern MRI equipment.

MRI equipment will be placed in a special room in children’s hospital. It will be child-friendly so that kids would not have any fear before entering the tunnel. The parents can be present during the procedure. Modern MRI doesn’t make so much noise, but a child can also use headphones to listen to favorite music or birds singing or some other sounds from nature. The most modern MRI equipment has special opportunity to watch cartoons.

The price of the innovative and child-friendly MRI is approximately 1,5 million euros. The final price will be fixed after the procurement.