New research finds no indication that children administered
anesthesia before their third birthdays have lower IQs than those who did not
have it. A more multifaceted picture emerges among people who had anesthesia
several times as small children: Although their intelligence is comparable,
they score modestly lower on tests measuring fine motor skills, and their
parents are more likely to report behavioral and learning problems. Memory,
Intelligence, and several other measures of brain function that are similar
among the groups.
However, those with multiple exposures to anesthesia had
modest declines in fine motor skills, such as the ability to draw figures with
a pencil, and how quickly they processed information when reading. Their
parents reported more learning and behavioral problems, such as difficulty
reading; behaviors consistent with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder;
breaking rules; or displaying aggression, anxiety or social withdrawal.
Parents whose children had anesthesia once under age 3
reported more problems with mental skills known as executive functions --
skills that help with memory, impulse control, planning, and flexibility -- but
not with other behaviors. Infants who undergo surgery, results overall are
reassuring children who are receiving multiple anesthetics, it's important to
note that our results don't allow us to accomplish that anesthesia itself.
In the intervening time, most cases the benefit of surgery outweighs any risk. However, the capacity for problems may need to be part of
the decision-making process when parents and surgeons discuss surgery.
Mostly it gets initiated by the following factors:
- Deep Anesthetic level with adequate muscle relaxation and blunting response to intubation
- No hypoxia
- No coughing
There are ethical problems of carrying out high-quality
studies in pediatrics but important findings on the prevention of anesthetic
neurotoxicity; minimizing intraoperative blood loss, intraoperative
neurophysiological monitoring, examining optimal doses and choices of
anesthetic agents.
