What would you do when claustrophobia prevents a diagnostic MRI and sedation support is unavailable?

Instruction: Choose a practical plan for this elective examination without improvising sedation or treating incomplete images as diagnostic.

Context: An outpatient attending an elective lumbar MRI for chronic symptoms becomes panicked and asks to stop. Only localizer images have been obtained. There are no new neurological red flags in the referral or current history. The department has no qualified sedation service available that evening, and the patient drove themselves to the appointment.

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I would stop the examination, help the patient out safely, and acknowledge the distress. The localizers do not answer the referral, so I would document an incomplete study rather than issue a reassuring diagnostic report...

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