General anaesthesia in under-fours may be linked to brain damage

Picture credit orlandohealth.com

Parents pay to get their kids educated, buy apps, get extra classes and save towards further education. But do they know...

The popular age to have tonsils removed is 3 years of age, with some medical aids now wanting GP confirmation of three episodes of tonsillitis within 6 months.

My question to you is, if you knew that general anaesthesia in under-fours may be linked to brain damage- would you rather postpone the removal of tonsils and treat conservatively until age four?

According to a study from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre , children who received general anaesthesia for surgery before age 4 had diminished language comprehension, lower IQ and decreased gray matter density in posterior regions of their brain.

For the current retrospective study, the authors compared the scores of 53 healthy participants of a language development study (ages 5 to 18 years with no history of surgery) with the scores of 53 children in the same age range who had undergone surgery before the age of 4.

The authors stress that average test scores for all 106 children in the study were within population norms, regardless of surgical history.

Still, compared with children who had not undergone surgery, children exposed to anaesthesia scored significantly lower in listening comprehension and performance IQ.

Researchers also report that decreased language and IQ scores were associated with lower gray matter density in the occipital cortex and cerebellum of the brain. More research needs to be done and this post is mere to inform parents , speak to your doctor before making any decisions regarding this topic.

Read more here http://bit.ly/1GxKCmE 

And let me know your thoughts under “comments”.

Queenbee!