ReviewAnesthesiology2018
Clinical Evidence for Any Effect of Anesthesia on the Developing Brain.
Review in Anesthesiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 138 citations in OpenAlex.
- General anesthesia in children and long-term neurodevelopmental deficits: A systematic review.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Long-term neurodevelopment in children born with esophageal atresia: a systematic review.Diseases of the esophagus : official journal of the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review and narrative synthesis on the histological and neurobehavioral long-term effects of dexmedetomidine.Paediatric anaesthesia · 2019Pooled it
- Neurodevelopmental outcome at 5 years of age after general anaesthesia or awake-regional anaesthesia in infancy (GAS): an international, multicentre, randomised, controlled equivalence trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2019Trial
- Intra-operative application of ultra-high frequency ultrasound facilitates differentiation of bowel wall characteristics between ganglionic and aganglionic segments during transanal endorectal pull-through for Hirschsprung disease.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Sevoflurane versus propofol and the long-term risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.General psychiatry · 2026Article
- Anesthetic-Induced Developmental Neurotoxicity: Cognitive Sequelae of Early Exposure.Anesthesia and critical care (Houston, Tex.) · 2026Article
- Histoanatomic Features Distinguishing Aganglionosis in Hirschsprung's Disease: Toward a Diagnostic Algorithm.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- N-Acetylcysteine Mitigates Ketamine Neurotoxicity in Young Rats by Modulating ROS-Mediated Pyroptosis and Ferroptosis.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Article
- The Relationship between Early Exposure to General Anesthesia and Neurobehavioral Deficits.Developmental neuroscience · 2025Review
- Remimazolam in pediatric ambulatory anesthesia: a critical review and clinical perspective.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Review
- The SAP130/Mincle axis was involved in sevoflurane-induced neuronal death and microglial activation in juvenile mice.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Improved Tubeless Airway Management in JORRP Surgery: Comparative Analysis of Pre- and Post-THRIVE Implementation.Therapeutics and clinical risk management · 2025Article
- Association between general anesthesia in early childhood and neurodevelopment up to 4 years of age: the Japan Environment and Children's Study.Journal of anesthesia · 2024Article
- Damage-associated molecular patterns as a mechanism of sevoflurane-induced neuroinflammation in neonatal rodents.Korean journal of anesthesiology · 2024Article
- Global Trends and Hotspots in Pediatric Anesthetic Neurotoxicity Research: A Bibliometric Analysis From 2000 to 2023.Cureus · 2024Review
- Pediatric Anesthesia Exposure: Decoding Its Neurodevelopmental Implications and Navigating the Nuances.Cureus · 2024Review
- Clinical and environmental considerations for neonatal, office-based circumcisions compared with operative circumcisions.Frontiers in urology · 2024Review
- Effects of anesthesia exposure on postnatal maturation of white matter in rhesus monkeys.Developmental psychobiology · 2023Article
- Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress-Activated Neuronal and Microglial Autophagy Contributes to Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction in Neonatal rats.Neurochemical research · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning advised that prolonged or repeated exposure to general anesthetics may affect neurodevelopment in children. This warning is based on a wealth of preclinical animal studies and relatively few human studies. The human studies include a variety of different populations with several different outcome measures. Interpreting the results requires consideration of the outcome used, the power of the study, the length of exposure and the efforts to reduce the confounding effects of comorbidity and surgery. Most, but not all, of the large population-based studies find evidence for associations between surgery in early childhood and slightly worse subsequent academic achievement or increased risk for later diagnosis of a behavioral disability. In several studies, the amount of added risk is very small; however, there is some evidence for a greater association with multiple exposures. These results may be consistent with the preclinical data, but the possibility of confounding means the positive associations can only be regarded as weak evidence for causation. Finally, there is strong evidence that brief exposure is not associated with any long term risk in humans.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.