title: [Neonatal exposure to anesthesia and adverse cognitive outcome in childhood. Insight from epidemiology].
abstract: Adverse effects of general anesthesia have been observed repeatedly, mainly in animal model studies and in rodents. Already in 2005, the Food and Drug Administration recommended proceeding to similar studies in human infants, highlighting that there were several methodological issues to solve before being able to appreciate the risk of anesthetic agents on the developing brain. Most studies conducted in humans were observational studies, showing a very mild adverse effect on cognitive functions, an effect that disappeared when properly adjusted analysis was performed (with various modalities for analysis and protocols for these adjusted results). Due to numerous biases in these observational studies - bias related to selection of the population and the control subjects and their comparability as well as outcome measure assessment, it has become extremely important to conduct prospective studies. Two international studies are currently under way, but their results will not be available for a few years. How animal model results can be relevant to human babies remains controversial. Until today, and according to the current state of the art, no changes in practices are indicated, and it is important for infants and their families to avoid sensationalist messages.
authors.affiliation: RHEOP - Équipe ThEMAS, Grenoble université-1, pôle santé publique, CHU de Grenoble, boulevard de la Chantourne, 38043 Grenoble cedex 09, France. CCans@chu-grenoble.fr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cans
mesh_terms: D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000818:Animals; D002657:Child Development / Q000187:drug effects*; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects*; D016292:Procedural Sedation / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007361:Intelligence Tests