Concerns about anaesthesia-related neurological injury in young children have been increasing among parents, health-care providers, and regulatory organisations. These concerns were first prompted by animal studies that showed accelerated apoptosis and neuronal death after exposure to general anaesthetic drugs. Most commonly used general anaesthetic drugs have since been found to cause pervasive adverse neurological effects in vitro and in immature animals, including non-human primates. This issue gained widespread prominence in 2017, when the US Food and Drug Administration issued a safety communication stating that the use of general anaesthetic drugs “for lengthy periods of time or over multiple surgeries or procedures may negatively affect brain development in children younger than 3 years”. Subsequently, warnings were added to the labels for these medicines.
Recent Posts
- A Scoping Review of the Mechanisms Underlying Developmental Anesthetic Neurotoxicity
- 2025 Annual Meeting, presented by the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS) and the Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists (SOCCA), March 20 – 23, 2025, Honolulu, HI
- Exposure to Operative Anesthesia in Childhood and Subsequent Neurobehavioral Diagnoses: A Natural Experiment Using Appendectomy
- Long-term outcomes of early exposure to repeated general anaesthesia in children with cystic fibrosis (CF-GAIN): a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled phase 4 trial. Claire Elizabeth Wainwright, et al. June 2024
- Columbia University Physician Scientist and SmartTots Investigator, Caleb Ing, MD, publishes new findings regarding prenatal exposure to general anesthesia and subsequent risk to the child.