Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a valuable procedure that can be used for diagnostic purposes in pediatric patients.1 Although MRI is not a painful process, it makes it necessary to increase the doses of sedative agents used in adults, adolescents, and especially in pediatric patients who cannot communicate because the place where it is performed is a semi-enclosed environment, the equipment is extremely noisy, and the procedure requires stillness.1,2 There is an acoustic noise generated by MRI scanners that reaches 110–130 dB.3 As a result of this intense noise, children may become anxious and frightened, resulting in them moving. Headphones reduce the acoustic noise levels and make the MRI environment more comfortable.4

Sedation applications bring many disadvantages, such as increased patient risk, additional costs, and prolonged waiting times.5 Furthermore, there is a risk of cardiac (hypotension, arrhythmia, and cardiac arrest) and respiratory complications (respiratory compromise and aspiration) in more than 20% of children sedated during the MRI experience. Non-pharmacological methods reducing the need for sedation can also prevent complications from sedation medications and anxiolytics.5,6 Applications such as watching movies, breathing exercises, listening to music, and relaxation are among the generally accepted non-pharmacological methods to reduce anxiety during MRI and the need for sedation/anesthesia.7,8 To successfully complete the MRI procedure in safe conditions, sedation and anesthesia techniques with minimal adverse effects that reduce anxiety and fear without deteriorating the hemodynamic parameters, including the mean arterial pressure, heart rate, respiration rate and oxygen saturation, should be preferred.9

Music has been used for many years during procedural sedation applications and minor or major surgical procedures to reduce patients' anxiety, fear, and anxiety.10, 11, 12, 13 It may create an analgesic effect and increase patient satisfaction.14, 15, 16 The effects of music on human emotional and physiological responses have been the subject of many studies. Music therapy has the potential to eliminate or reduce the need for pharmacotherapy. It is known that listening to different types of music can change many physiological responses such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, or blood endorphin level with the anxiolytic and sedative effects.10,17 The mother's voice, which children have heard since the intrauterine period, is known to reduce children's stress and create positive responses in both behavioral and neuronal responses of children.18 Sedo-analgesia, providing analgesia and sedation in patients during daily surgical or diagnostic procedures, is a method that increases the comfort of the patient and the person performing the procedure, which is frequently applied in the practice of anesthesia in the form of benzodiazepines, opioids, ketamine, and other IV anesthetic drugs alone or in different combinations.19 There are three studies in the literature on the effect of listening to the mother's voice during the procedures performed under sedo-analgesia in pediatric patients on the need and levels of sedation.20, 21, 22 Kim et al.20 reported that listening to the mother's voice by children undergoing cardiac catheterization reduced preoperative anxiety and recovery agitation. Azarmnejad et al21 stated that listening to the mother's voice during painful procedures such as arterial blood collection, injection, or vascular access in the neonatal intensive care unit is simple, useful, effective, and, most importantly, an easy method to alleviate pain. Although there are studies in the literature in which maternal and musical voices are used, no study has been found examining the effects of listening to music and the mother's voice during MRI on sedation requirements and levels. Erdoğan et al.22 reported that children who listened to their mother's voice during painful procedures in pediatric intensive care units had lower heart rate and higher oxygen saturation values.

In this study, the effect of listening to music or their mother's voice in a pediatric patient group who underwent MRI accompanied by sedo-analgesia on the need and levels of sedation was investigated prospectively. Our study hypothesized that listening to the music or the mother's voice would reduce the need for sedatives without increasing the depth of sedation in pediatric patients who would undergo MRI.