Study: General anesthesia safe in young children

Editor's Note

Children who received a single general anesthesia under age 3 had similar IQ, behavior, language, and mental functions, including attention, learning, memory, and thinking speed, between ages 8 and 15, compared with siblings who didn’t receive general anesthesia, this study finds.

This multi-center study led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, New York City, is the largest and most comprehensive study on assessment of pediatric anesthesia neurodevelopment.

The study included 105 healthy children who underwent surgical repair of inguinal hernias.

1Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital-New York Presbyterian, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York 2Mailman School of Public Health and College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, New York 3Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 4Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland