Operation Game Boy

By Janice M. Horowitz

Facing anesthesia can be a scary prospect for patients of any age. But for kids at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, it is literally child's play. Doctors there are trying out a toy-like device called PediSedate for putting kids to sleep without anxiety. Meant for kids ages 3 to 9, the gadget looks like a big, plastic version of a pilot's headset--in a choice of blue or cranberry--with a snorkel attached. The contraption is connected to a Nintendo Game Boy or, for music lovers, a portable CD player. When it's time for surgery, the child dons the headset (instead of a scary face mask), and, while happily preoccupied, is slipped a dose of nitrous oxide through the snorkel. Within minutes, the young patient is comfortably sedated and ready for stronger drugs, if needed. PediSedate is intended only for minor surgery, such as stitching deep wounds or inserting ear stents. For major operations like an appendectomy, anesthesia must still be delivered the old-fashioned way: through a tube placed directly into the airway. And sorry, grownups, no adult version is available. --By Janice M. Horowitz