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 

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