Abstract
Several putative mechanisms have been demonstrated in various vitro and in in vivo experimental models which associate anesthetic exposure with neural cell injury and death in the developing brain. Furthermore, when young animals were followed long-term, the neonatal anesthesia exposure was associated with persistent behavioral and cognitive impairments. Several retrospective human studies of neurocognitive and behavioral disorders following childhood exposure to anesthesia are mixed in that some suggest similar associations while others do not. The two only prospective or bidirectional clinical studies so far published observed that otherwise healthy children who underwent short general anesthetics in conjunction with limited surgery (herniotomy) at very young age had no cognitive impairments later in life. No clinical studies so far have addressed the effects of longer exposures or were focused on specific patient populations potentially at risk for such outcomes. The implication of this information on anesthetic practice in pediatric patients remains to be seen.
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Ellis, M.K.M., Brambrink, A.M. (2020). Neurotoxicity of General Anesthetics. In: Brambrink, A., Kirsch, J. (eds) Essentials of Neurosurgical Anesthesia & Critical Care. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17410-1_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17410-1_14
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