Word: anesthesia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Wilder and his colleagues are also cautious about their results because the data do not make clear whether it was the anesthesia that contributed to the children's learning deficits or whether it was an underlying condition that may have required surgery and precipitated the learning problems. Of the more than 5,000 babies studied, 593 needed at least one surgery and just over 100 infants needed more than two before age 3. There may have been something unusual about this population of children that made them vulnerable to learning problems and required them to undergo surgery and anesthesia...
...perhaps. But it does highlight the need for future research. While the study does not establish a direct link between anesthesia and learning disabilities, it doesn't rule one out. The babies who underwent surgery in the Mayo study were treated for a wide range of conditions, few of which were brain-related. By far, the most common procedure performed on the infants involved the insertion of tubes in the ears to remove fluid to prevent hearing loss and potential delays in speech and language skills; 26% of the babies undergoing surgery fell into this category. One-quarter...
...What's more, the Mayo researchers found hints of a dose-dependent effect: the longer infants stayed under anesthesia, the greater their chance of developing later problems reading, writing and doing math...
...Still, experts are not willing to say that babies should never be given anesthesia. "We don't want to delay surgery or withhold surgery for the kids who need it," says Dr. Sulpicio Soriano, an anesthesiologist at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston. "But we need more research and clinical investigation to find new drugs and new combinations of drugs that can attenuate or mitigate the cognitive effects...
...Already, the Food and Drug Administration is supporting further study of the connection between anesthesia and cognition to find such alternatives. Meanwhile, says Flick, "it's just not time yet to make any recommendations about changing practices...