A study published in The Lancet examined whether early exposure to general anesthesia affects neurodevelopmental outcomes among infants.
Researchers conducted an international randomized, controlled trial at 28 hospitals in the U.S., Australia, Italy, U.K., Canada, Netherlands and New Zealand. They studied infants younger than 60 weeks who were undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy, without previous exposure to general anesthesia or risk factors for neurological injury.
They screened infants between Feb. 9, 2007, and Jan. 31, 2013, and 722 patients were included in the study and divided into two groups, receiving either an awake-regional anesthetic (363) or a sevoflurane-based general anesthetic (359).
Researchers received data from 205 children in the awake-regional anesthesia group and 242 in the general anesthesia group. The median duration of general anesthesia was 54 minutes.
They measured full-scale intelligence quotient on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, third edition at 5 years of age for children in both groups. The FSIQ score was 99·08 in the awake-regional anesthesia group and 98·97 in the general anesthesia group.