Faced with mounting evidence that general anesthesia may impair brain development in babies and young children, experts said Wednesday that more research is greatly needed and that when planning surgery for a child, parents and doctors should consider how urgently it is required, particularly in children younger than 3 years.
In the United States each year, about a million children younger than 4 have surgery with general anesthesia, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
So far, the threat is only a potential one; there is no proof that children have been harmed. The concern is based on two types of research. Experiments in young monkeys and other animals have shown that commonly used anesthetics and sedatives can kill brain cells, diminish learning and memory and cause behavior problems. And studies in children have found an association between learning problems and multiple exposures to anesthesia early in life — though not single exposures.
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Dr. Santhanam Suresh, the chairman of pediatric anesthesiology at Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, said that his hospital was taking steps to inform pediatricians and surgeons about the potential problems, so parents could be told well ahead of time instead of being given the information shortly before their child is taken to the operating room.
“I feel very strongly that parents are under huge duress on the day of surgery, and to present information like this on the day of surgery is difficult,” Dr. Suresh said. “It’s difficult for them to comprehend.”
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