Pediatric anesthesia & critical care
Anesthesia and Babies’ Brains: Lessons from the Lounge
Authors' conclusion
Exposure to anesthesia was a significant risk factor for the later development of learning disabilities in children receiving multiple but not single anesthetics.
Study context
- Population
- Children born 1976 to 1982 to mothers residing in five townships of Olmsted County, Minnesota, remaining in the community at 5 yr of age593 received GA before age 4 yr
- Participants
- 5,357 children
- Exposure
- Single, two, or three or more anesthetics vs no anesthesia before age 4 yr
- No anesthesian = 4,764reference
- Single exposuren = 449
- Two anestheticsn = 100
- Three or more anestheticsn = 44
- Outcome
- Reading, written language, and math learning disabilities
Methodological detailspopulation-based, birth cohort
- Population-based
- Birth cohort
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Learning disabilities
Each group vs no anesthesiaHazard ratio (95% CI)
Single exposure
1.0(0.79–1.27)
Two anesthetics
1.59(1.06–2.37)
Three or more anesthetics
2.60(1.60–4.24)
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Cumulative duration of anesthesia exposure (continuous variable)
- Risk for learning disabilities increased with longer cumulative duration of anesthesia exposure
- P = 0.016
Original publication
Anesthesia and Babies’ Brains: Lessons from the Lounge. Anesthesiology. Published 11 December 2025. doi:10.
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