Are Anesthesia and Surgery during Infancy Associated with Altered Academic Performance during Childhood?

Although studies in neonatal animals show that anesthetics have neurotoxic effects, relevant human evidence is limited. We examined whether children who had surgery during infancy showed deficits in academic achievement. We attempted to contact parents of 577 children who, during infancy, had one of...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Anesthesiology (Philadelphia) 2012-09, Vol.117 (3), p.494-503
Main Authors: BLOCK, Robert I, THOMAS, Joss J, BAYMAN, Emine O, CHOI, James Y, KIMBLE, Karolie K, TODD, Michael M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Achievement
Adolescent
Anesthesia
Anesthesia - adverse effects
Anesthesia. Intensive care medicine. Transfusions. Cell therapy and gene therapy
Biological and medical sciences
Central Nervous System Diseases - etiology
Child
Humans
Infant
Medical sciences
Risk Factors
Surgical Procedures, Operative - adverse effects
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although studies in neonatal animals show that anesthetics have neurotoxic effects, relevant human evidence is limited. We examined whether children who had surgery during infancy showed deficits in academic achievement. We attempted to contact parents of 577 children who, during infancy, had one of three operations typically performed in otherwise healthy children. We compared scores on academic achievement tests with population norms. Composite scores were available for 287 patients. The mean normal curve equivalent score was 43.0±22.4 (mean±SD), lower than the expected normative value of 50, P
ISSN:0003-3022
1528-1175
DOI:10.1097/ALN.0b013e3182644684