Repeated Use of General Anesthesia in Kids Linked to Learning Disabilities

Young children who have undergone multiple surgeries under general anesthesia appear to be at greater risk of developing learning disabilities later in life, new medical research shows.

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. found that children who had two or more surgeries involving the use of general anesthesia before age four were more than twice as likely to develop attention-deficit disorder, problems with reading, writing, and other learning disabilities.

The increased risk of learning disabilities in children was limited to those who had general anesthesia, when drugs are delivered directly to the blood stream to put the patient in a state of unconsciousness. The same risk was not noted in patients exposed to local anesthesia, such as that commonly used for dental treatments, or regional anesthesia, such as an epidural given during childbirth.

Research Finds Possible Link

Previous research on laboratory rats has found that exposure to anesthesia in young rats can kill brain cells. The new research was intended to test the validity of those results in humans.

Medical records of more than 5,000 children were examined. About 600 of those studied had undergone one or more surgeries with general anesthesia for a range of problems ranging from open-heart surgery to removal of tonsils and other procedures, researchers said.

The scientists found children who had undergone a single operation with general anesthesia by age four were no more likely to develop a learning disability than any other child. However, kids the same age who had two surgeries under a general anesthetic were 1 ½ times more at risk while those who had undergone three operations were 2 ½ times at greater risk. Half of children who had had three or more general anesthesia procedures in the same time later developed a learning disability, the researchers found.

The Mayo Clinic researchers speculate that the increased risk of learning disability in kids who have undergone multiple surgeries under general anesthesia may be attributed to delivering powerful drugs to the brain, through the blood stream, at a time when the child’s brain is quickly developing.

The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for learning new things and if damaged by the exposure to general anesthesia, it may be damaged and fail to work properly later in life, the scientists said.

Don’t Go Without Anesthesia When Necessary

While noting the possible risks of increased learning disabilities caused by repeated use of general anesthesia in young children, the researchers said they do not support avoiding necessary surgeries. However, in some cases, parents may be more comfortable consulting with the surgeon or waiting until a child is older to have the general anesthetic surgery.

The new research on general anesthesia and the possible link to learning disabilities is published in the current issue of Anesthesiology, the journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

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