In 1981, a startling article was published in Anesthesia& Analgesia: “Exposure to Halothane and Enflurane Affects Learning Function of Murine Progeny.” The study found that adolescent mice that had been exposed in utero to halothane or enflurane anesthesia had markedly impaired maze learning compared with unexposed controls. Decades before the discovery of epigenetics, the article even showed that, in some cases, impairments were also found in the next generation. The authors proposed further research to explore the relevance of their findings to anesthesia in humans. The article was, however, largely ignored and the authors’ proposal not pursued.
Categories
Recent Posts
- Increasing the interval between repeated anesthetic exposures reduces long‐lasting synaptic changes in late post‐natal mice
- Tau Contributes to Sevoflurane-induced Neurocognitive Impairment in Neonatal Mice
- Neonatal exposure to sevoflurane expands the window of vulnerability to adverse effects of subsequent exposure to sevoflurane and alters hippocampal morphology via decitabine-sensitive mechanisms
- Sevoflurane Post-Conditioning Ameliorates Neuronal Deficits and Axon Demyelination After Neonatal Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury: Role of Microglia/Macrophage
- Behavior and Regional Cortical BOLD Signal Fluctuations Are Altered in Adult Rabbits After Neonatal Volatile Anesthetic Exposure