WASHINGTON -- The possible link between anesthesia exposure and
brain development in young children is still too poorly
understood to sound the alarm bells, an FDA advisory panel
decided. However, anesthesia should only be used to sedate a
child when necessary and always at the lowest doses possible,
the Anesthetic and Life Support Drugs Advisory Committee agreed.
The advisory panel met Thursday to discuss what to do with the
growing body of research that anesthesia use may have long-term
neurocognitive effects when used in children whose brains are
still developing. But the bulk of the research has been
performed in animals, and it's unclear whether those results are
applicable to humans. "We need to definitively answer the
questions of whether anesthetic use in children poses a risk to
their development and, if so, under what circumstances," Bob
Rappaport, MD, who heads the FDA's anesthesia and analgesia
products division, and colleagues wrote in a Perspective article
published Wednesday in the New England