Yes, open MRI machines exist and are available at imaging centers and hospitals across the country. They replace the narrow tube of a traditional MRI with a more spacious design, leaving at least two sides open. Open MRI was developed primarily for people who experience claustrophobia, anxiety, or physical discomfort in a conventional scanner, and the technology has expanded to include several different configurations depending on what’s being scanned.
How Open MRI Machines Are Designed
A traditional MRI is a long, narrow tube (called a bore) that surrounds your entire body during the scan. Open MRI machines come in a few different forms, but all of them give you significantly more space and visibility.
The most common design uses two large flat magnets positioned above and below you, with open space on all sides. You lie on a table between the magnets, and there are no walls enclosing you. A C-arm configuration uses a single curved magnet that wraps partially around one side of your body, leaving the rest open. Then there are upright or stand-up MRI machines, which let you walk into the scanner and be imaged while sitting, standing, or even squatting. The University of British Columbia operates one of these systems, describing it as an “open sky, walk-in design” that can scan patients in a wide range of postures.
Finding an Open MRI Near You
Open MRI machines are less common than traditional closed-bore scanners, but they’re not rare. Freestanding imaging centers, outpatient radiology clinics, and some hospital systems offer them. The simplest way to find one is to search for “open MRI” along with your city or zip code, or to ask your doctor’s office for a referral to a facility that has one. Keep in mind that not every facility advertises their equipment type on their website, so calling ahead is often the fastest route.
Some facilities also offer what’s called a “wide-bore” MRI, which isn’t truly open but has a larger diameter tube (typically 70 cm or wider) compared to the standard bore. This is a middle ground: the image quality matches a traditional scanner, but the extra space may be enough to reduce anxiety for some people. If you’re unsure whether you need a fully open machine or just a wider one, it helps to know what’s driving your preference.
Who Benefits Most From Open MRI
Claustrophobia is the primary reason people seek out open MRI. Roughly 2 to 15 percent of patients scheduled for MRI experience claustrophobia severe enough to make the procedure impossible or require sedation. An open scanner eliminates the enclosed space entirely, which for many people means completing the scan without medication.
Body size is another common factor. Traditional MRI bores are typically 60 to 70 cm in diameter, and that usable space shrinks further once you account for safety padding and imaging coils, sometimes by as much as 5 cm. Open MRI removes bore diameter as a limitation altogether. People with broad shoulders, larger body types, or conditions that make lying in a confined space painful (like certain back injuries or casts) often have a much easier experience in an open machine.
Children and elderly patients who may have difficulty staying still in an enclosed space also benefit. In an open MRI, a parent can sometimes stand nearby and maintain eye contact with a child during the scan, which reduces the need for sedation.
Upright MRI for Spinal and Joint Problems
Upright open MRI machines offer something no traditional scanner can: imaging your body under its own weight. When you lie flat in a standard MRI, gravity isn’t compressing your spine or joints the way it does when you’re standing or sitting. This matters because some problems only show up under load.
Research on weight-bearing MRI of the cervical spine has found that upright and dynamic positioning can reveal spinal canal narrowing, nerve compression, ligament buckling, and alignment changes that are completely invisible on standard scans taken while lying down. These findings tend to be most pronounced during flexion, extension, and upright postures. For people with neck or back pain that doesn’t match what their conventional MRI shows, an upright scan can sometimes reveal the missing piece.
Image Quality and Scan Times
This is the main tradeoff. Most open MRI machines operate at a magnetic field strength of 0.2 to 0.3 Tesla, while standard closed MRI scanners run at 1.5 to 3 Tesla. That difference in magnet strength directly affects image resolution. Open MRI produces images that are good enough for many diagnostic purposes, but they may lack the fine detail needed for evaluating small structures, deep tissues, or subtle abnormalities.
Some facilities now offer high-field open MRI systems at 1.0 or 1.2 Tesla, which narrow the quality gap considerably. These machines are less common and typically found at larger imaging centers, but they represent a meaningful improvement over the older low-field open systems.
Scan times also tend to be longer. A typical closed MRI or wide-bore scan takes 15 to 30 minutes, while the same study on an open MRI system can take 30 to 60 minutes. The lower field strength requires more time to gather enough data for a usable image. If you’re choosing an open MRI for comfort reasons, it’s worth knowing you’ll likely spend more time in the scanner, even though the experience itself feels less confining.
Open MRI Is Quieter
MRI machines are loud. Traditional closed-bore scanners produce noise levels ranging from about 82 to 118 decibels depending on the field strength, with higher-powered machines being louder. The enclosed tube amplifies that noise through reverberation, similar to how sound echoes inside a tunnel.
Open MRI scanners are generally quieter because there’s no enclosed bore to trap and amplify sound waves. You’ll still hear knocking, buzzing, and humming during the scan, and you’ll still be offered earplugs or headphones. But the overall noise exposure is typically lower, which adds to the comfort advantage.
When a Closed MRI May Be Necessary
Your doctor may specifically request a closed, high-field MRI for certain situations. Detailed brain imaging, cardiac MRI, cancer staging, and scans of very small structures like the inner ear or blood vessels often require the higher resolution that only a 1.5T or 3T closed scanner can provide. If your referring physician writes an order for a high-field MRI, it’s worth asking whether an open system would still give them the diagnostic information they need before switching on your own.
For many common scans, including knees, shoulders, lumbar spine, and general screening of larger joints and organs, an open MRI provides perfectly adequate images. The key is matching the machine to the clinical question being asked.