Anesthesia for proton beam therapy

Proton beam radiation is being used more frequently to treat malignancies, especially in the central nervous system. Protons have a larger mass than the photons used for standard radiation therapy and therefore can be directed more accurately to the lesion and minimize damage to the surrounding tissue. Although the therapy is not painful, anesthesia is often required so that the patient lies still and the beam can be directed accurately. A variety of techniques have been successfully used to anesthetize patients undergoing proton beam therapy. Currently intravenous propofol by infusion with spontaneous ventilation without airway instrumentation is the most popular method because it allows rapid recovery, helps prevent nausea and avoids the trauma of instrumenting the airway.