Could anesthesia in young children be a possible threat to their health? Its been known to be used in millions of surgical procedures, in which in some cases, it could lead to cognitive problems or learning disabilities. A Federal Panel was assigned to meet on Thursday to evaluate the research that suggests Anesthesia could harm young children. Whether informing parents whose children are facing surgery should know of possible cognitive or behavioral risks is still controversial. Reported in The New York Times, Dr. Rappaport, who is studying this case, goes on to say
“We don’t know what this means for children at this time,” Dr. Rappaport said, adding, “That’s exactly why it’s so critical that we get all of the necessary information.”
In the meantime, he said, “how do we communicate what we do know at this point without causing undue concern in parents and in physicians?” Medical advances are allowing more fragile and premature infants to survive birth, often to require critical surgical procedures.
So far it seems doctors are uncertain what to do at this given point in time. It’s been proven in studies of monkeys and rodents that have shown brain cell death, if exposed to anesthesia at a very young age. However, trying out a test such as thing one, on humans is far more complex, and often lacks strength because the research doesn’t account for children various experience to whether learning deficits were coincidental. However, Dr. Nancy Glass, a pediatric anesthesiologist had this to say,
“We’re all concerned,” Dr. Glass said, but “we don’t believe that there is data yet that says to us either that we should change our technique or that we should frighten parents about allowing us to anesthetize their children for necessary surgery.”
It seems to be very uncertain what the outcome of anesthesia actually does to a child’s body, but knowing different types of cognitive and behavioral disabilities, it would be nice to try and prevent more children from getting these disabilities.
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