Study shows anaesthesia may harm memory
General anaesthesia before the age of one may impair memory later in childhood, and the effects may possibly be lifelong, a study said Monday.
This was the conclusion of scientists who compared the recollection skills of two groups of children — some who had undergone anaesthesia in infancy and others who had not.
The children, aged six to 11 and divided into two groups of 28 each, were tested over a period of 10 months for their ability to recollect specific drawings and details therein.
The children who had been anaesthetised as babies had about 28 per cent less recollection on average than their peers, and scored 20 per cent lower in tests that assessed how much detail they could remember about the drawings.
"The children did not differ in tests measuring intelligence or behaviour, but those who had received anaesthesia had significantly lower recollection scores," said a media summary provided by the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, which published the results.
