Mason Mandy

New Study: Anesthesia is Safe for

Young Children Who Have

Undergone Surgery

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A new study recently conducted byMedical Express examines the variousways in which general anesthesia affectschildren under the age of 3. As the firstthree years of a child’s life are absolutelycritical when it comes to braindevelopment, there has been much debateas to if anesthesia actually poses acognitive threat or risk to these youngchildren.

This study, which was conducted by leadresearchers at both Columbia Universityand NY Presbyterian/Morgan StanleyChildren’s Hospital was on attempting tobetter understand if general anesthesianegatively impacted various stages ofearly childhood development such asmemory, attention, etc. Since limitedmedical studies confirmed anesthesia’sdetriment, researchers decided to evaluatewhether or not this was the case amongyoung children.

A primary concern that drove this researchstudy was the fact professionals in thegreater pediatric field were wary ifanesthetic agents negatively affecteddeveloping neurosystems.

Throughout this study, researchersanalyzed findings from 105 healthychildren who had previously undergoneinguinal hernia surgery. Researchers thenexamined the IQ scores in areas such asprocessing speed and executive function,and compared these results with those ofhealthy children in the same age bracket(anywhere from age 8 to 15).

According to Guohua Li, DrPH, MD,professor of epidemiology at Columbia,the findings from this comprehensivestudy clearly point to the fact that parentsshould not be hesitant to have theirchildren undergo procedures or surgeriesthat require general anesthesia.

Dr. Sun, a lead researcher in this studyconfirms that there were no differences indeveloping capabilities between bothgroups of children. But, Dr. Sun also statesthat the group of children exposed togeneral anesthesia required more clinicalevaluation, due to signs of internalizingbehavior.

While the study uncovered salient findingswithin the field of pediatrics, there are stillseveral unanswered questions that need tobe explored in greater detail whenresearchers revisit this topic again. Withthe majority of the informants in the studyconsisted of young boys, the researcherswere thus unable to better understand howgirls are affected by anesthesia under 3years old.

In addition, medical professionals wouldalso need to further explore the variouseffects of children who have had repeatedor prolonged exposure to anesthesia, aswell as children with more serious medicalconditions. To read more about variousfindings in this study, please take a look atthe Journal of the American MedicalAssociation.