WebMD Medical News Brenda Goodman, MA Louise Chang, MD Aug. 20,
2012 -- A new study is raising fresh concerns about the use of
general anesthesia in young children. Recent studies have
suggested that anesthetic drugs may increase the risk for
learning disabilities and behavioral problems such as attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but only in kids who are
exposed to the drugs several times. The new study, which is
published in the journal Pediatrics, links even a single dose of
anesthesia to later harm. However, the study does not prove that
anesthesia is the cause. "I don't want to scare parents," says
researcher Lena S. Sun, MD, a pediatric anesthesiologist at
Columbia University Medical Center in New York. "If children
need to have surgery, you need to weigh all the risks and all
the benefits in terms of what you need to do," Sun says. The new
study is based on data from nearly 2,900 children in Australia
followed by researchers since before they were born. Parents
reported that 321 children i