Early childhood exposure to short periods of sevoflurane is not associated with later, lasting cognitive deficits

Summary Background A detrimental effect of commonly used anesthetics on the neurodevelopmental and behavioral parameters has long been shown in young animals subjected to early childhood anesthesia. Epidemiologic studies suggest the possibility of a modestly elevated risk of adverse neurodevelopment...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pediatric anesthesia 2016-10, Vol.26 (10), p.1018-1025
Main Authors: Poor Zamany Nejat Kermany, Mahtab, Roodneshin, Fatemeh, Ahmadi Dizgah, Niloofar, Gerami, Ebrahim, Riahi, Esmail
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Anesthesia
Anesthetics, Inhalation - adverse effects
Brain - drug effects
Child
Child, Preschool
children
Cognition Disorders - chemically induced
cognitive performance
Cohort Studies
digit span
Female
Humans
Male
Methyl Ethers - adverse effects
Retrospective Studies
sevoflurane
verbal fluency
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Summary:Summary Background A detrimental effect of commonly used anesthetics on the neurodevelopmental and behavioral parameters has long been shown in young animals subjected to early childhood anesthesia. Epidemiologic studies suggest the possibility of a modestly elevated risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes in children exposed to anesthesia during early childhood. However, these results are still preliminary and inconclusive. Aim To further elucidate the probability of occurrence of such adverse outcomes, we evaluated cognitive performance of children who underwent general anesthesia early in their childhood. Method One hundred and fifteen children aged 5‒16 years with established glaucoma were included in the study. Of these, 68 children had a history of at least one general anesthesia with sevoflurane before age 3. Phonemic and semantic verbal fluency, and forward and backward digit span tests were performed to evaluate cognitive function in the study subjects. Results The two‐way anova revealed that all these variables showed significant changes in various age groups, but they were comparable among subjects with no, single, or multiple childhood anesthesia. Conclusion It can be concluded that brief periods of anesthesia with single anesthetic sevoflurane may be safe for children under age 3.
ISSN:1155-5645
1460-9592
DOI:10.1111/pan.12969