Anesthesia Medications Before Age 2 May Lead To Learning Disorders Later On

Editor's Choice
Academic Journal
Main Category: Pain / Anesthetics
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 03 Oct 2011 - 14:00 PDT


Humans under two years of age who are exposed to anesthesia drugs more than once have a significantly higher risk of developing learning disorders compared to other children of the same age, researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester reported in the journal Pediatrics. Previous studies had demonstrated a link between anesthesia exposure and neurodegeneration in young animals.

The researchers explained that millions of toddlers and babies receive general anesthesia for various types of surgery, such as of the ear or hernia repairs. They say they found an association between multiple surgeries that require general anesthesia before 24 months of age and learning disabilities later on.

Co-author, David Warner, M.D., an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic and team set out to determine what effects anesthesia medications might have on the behavior and learning of young children who underwent surgical procedures before they were two.

They sifted through the records of 5,357 kids from the Rochester Epidemiology Project and gathered data on 1,050 of them - they were all born between 1976 and 1982. All the children came from a single school district in Rochester, Minnesota, USA. Dr. Warner said:

"After removing factors related to existing health issues, we found that children exposed more than once to anesthesia and surgery prior to age 2 were approximately three times as likely to develop problems related to speech and language when compared to children who never underwent surgeries at that young age."

The authors compared 350 children who had undergone surgical procedures with general anesthesia - 286 had one surgery while 64 had two or more - before they were two years old, and compared their data to 700 children of the same age who had no procedures with anesthesia.

The researchers found that:

• 36.6% of those who had undergone two or more procedures (multiple procedures) subsequently developed a learning disability
• 23.6% of those who had just one surgery before the age of two went on to develop a learning disability
• 21.2% of those who had no surgeries went on to develop a learning disability
• No link was found between one surgical procedure or multiple procedures and a higher risk of subsequent behavioral disorders.

Lead author, Randall Flick, M.D., wrote:

"Our advice to parents considering surgery for a child under age 2 is to speak with your child's physician. In general, this study should not alter decision-making related to surgery in young children. We do not yet have sufficient information to prompt a change in practice and want to avoid problems that may occur as a result of delaying needed procedures. For example, delaying ear surgery for children with repeated ear infections might cause hearing problems that could create learning difficulties later in school."

In an Abstract in the journal Pediatrics, the authors concluded:

"Repeated exposure to anesthesia and surgery before the age of 2 was a significant independent risk factor for the later development of LDs but not the need for educational interventions related to emotion/behavior. We cannot exclude the possibility that multiple exposures to anesthesia/surgery at an early age may adversely affect human neurodevelopment with lasting consequence."

Written by Christian Nordqvist
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

• Additional
• References
• Citations