MRI Services
Whether your child is scheduled at our outpatient MRI Center or the hospital, you can expect that we will provide imaging and services tailored to meet your child’s needs in a family-friendly environment. The 3T MRI technology offers unprecedented imaging quality that is tailored to children and their unique requirements. Our outpatient center is conveniently located across the street from our hospital and offers the full range of anesthesia-supported imaging, including anesthesia exams, non-anesthesia exams and recovery similar to the hospital imaging center.
The images are read by internationally recognized pediatric-trained Stanford radiologists who work closely with a team of highly skilled nurses, technologists, pediatric anesthesiologists and child development experts. Patients of different acuity levels may be seen at this center, although it could be determined that the patient’s needs are best served by completing the exam in our hospital, depending upon the exam requirements.
Patient benefits
- Facility and staff completely dedicated to kids and parents
- 3T MRI provides highest resolution imaging with shorter scan times
- Zero-radiation imaging option for children
- Anesthesia tailored to children’s needs
- For non-anesthesia exams, children can watch movies or listen to music during procedures
- Same-day or next-day appointments for most non-anesthesia exams
- Evening and weekend appointments
- Convenient parking and valet service
Faster, Higher-Quality Knee and Ankle MRI
When your child needs an MRI, that experience should be as fast and easy as possible, while producing the best possible information to inform diagnosis and treatment decisions. At the Stanford Children’s Health outpatient MRI Center in Palo Alto (732 Welch Road), we use custom technology to collect high-resolution 4D images of the knee and ankle in one-third of the time of a traditional MRI.
These images are more detailed, which leads to more accurate diagnoses, cost less, and require patients to spend less time in an MRI machine. MRIs are interpreted by dedicated pediatric musculoskeletal radiologists with focused experience in teen and pre-teen athletes.
Before getting this type of MRI, patients should have a suspected diagnosis of:
- ACL injury
- Meniscal tear
- Osteochondral lesion
- Ankle and foot pain
- Osteochondritis dissecans
- Ganglion
- Stress fracture
- Foot deformity
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Patients who already have a suspected or known diagnosis can call (650) 497-8376 to schedule a same-day MRI appointment. Your doctor will also need to fax a referral form to (650) 724-2663 or submit the referral via MD Portal.
Patients without a suspected or known diagnosis can be seen at the Children’s Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center for an evaluation, and then get their MRI immediately after.
To make an appointment at the Children’s Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center for an evaluation, please call (844) 41-ORTHO.