According to Dr Dr Andreas Loepke, of the Anesthesia Department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (USA), general anesthesia undergone by a child under the age of 4 reduces the density of gray matter in certain posterior regions of the brain. , leading to a drop in IQ and affecting language development.
According to the doctor and his team, who have just published a study in the scientific journal Pediatrics, this major discovery was to pave the way for research into how general anesthesia can affect the human brain in early life, a crucial period of neurological development, to improve safety for children who have no no choice but to undergo surgery under anesthesia.
For their study, the researchers recruited 53 participants aged 5-18 who had undergone surgery involving general anesthesia before the age of 4, alongside 53 participants who had never had surgery. None of these children had a history of neurological or psychological illness and none had suffered traumatic brain injury.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to analyze children’s brain structures and children took an IQ and language development questionnaire to complete the test.
The results showed that children who had undergone anesthesia had lower scores than others. According to the researchers, this equates to a loss of 5 to 6 IQ points. Dr Andreas Loepke, however, recalls that the benefits of surgery for young children (mostly intended to treat serious health problems) far outweigh the risks associated with anesthetic exposure.
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