Anesthesia is the most humane of all of man's accomplishments, and what a merciful accomplishment it was...(Joseph Lewis)

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too (William Shakespeare)

By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too (William Shakespeare)
By medicine life may be prolonged, yet death Will seize the doctor too - William Shakespeare

Saturday, November 7, 2015

anesthesia exposed infants express significantly more anxious behavior which persists for at least five months suggesting long-term effects


Multiple Exposures To Post-Natal Anesthesia Leave A Long-Term Effect On Behavior Of The ChildA

Researchers from the Mount Sinai University and Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University studied the effect of repeated postnatal anesthesia exposure on a rhesus monkey model that was translationally equivalent and had similar neurodevelopmental stages corresponding to human. 



Experiment
  • Ten non-human primates (rhesus monkeys) were exposed to a common pediatric anesthetic called Sevoflurane for a comparable length of time required for a significant surgical procedure in humans (four hours)
  • They were exposed to the anesthetic at postnatal day seven and then again two and four weeks later
  • Socioemotional behavior of exposed subjects compared with that of healthy controls at six months of age using a mild social stressor such as exposure to an unfamiliar human
Observation
  • They found the anesthesia-exposed infants expressed significantly more anxious behaviors overall compared with controls
  • The study results also demonstrate that alterations in emotional behavior persist at least five months after anesthesia exposure, suggesting long-term effects
Inference

  • Repeated exposure to anesthesia early in life causes alterations in emotional behavior that may persist long-term
  • Future studies using this primate model can be carried out to develop a new anesthetic agent or prophylactic treatment to reduce the harmful impact of anesthesia on behavior in children
  • Studies on the mechanism how it affects the central nervous system is needed
The article was published in Anesthesiology Journal, Issue: November 2015 

Note: The current article was sourced from: docplexus