Repeated anesthesia in kids tied to learning disabilities

(CBS) Anytime a young child goes in for surgery, parents have plenty of reasons to worry. But a new study adds another potential cause of concern: learning disabilities - from too much anesthesia.

A new study shows kids who were exposed more than once to anesthesia and surgery prior to age 2 were three times as likely to develop speech and language problems when compared to children who never had surgeries at that young age.

For the FDA-sponsored study - published in the October 3 issue of Pediatrics - Mayo Clinic researchers looked at records for 1,050 kids born in Rochester, Minn. between 1976 and 1982. The researchers compared the rate of learning disabilities among 350 children who had undergone surgery with general anesthesia before their second birthday - including 64 kids who had more than one procedure - to that of 700 children who did not have any surgeries with anesthesia.

Almost 37 percent of kids who had multiple surgeries before age 2 developed a learning disability, compared to 24 percent who had one surgery. Twenty-one percent of children who had never had surgery had a learning disability. The study's author said that a single surgery was not statistically shown to be dangerous.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20114853-10391704.html

HOWEVER...surgery before age 2 is generally only done under extreme circumstances. I have to wonder if preexisting issues REQUIRING surgery are the real culprit and not necessarily the anesthesia? Combination thereof? Interesting, nonetheless.

you couldn't possibly control for.

He's in third grade -- special needs -- he's delayed -- even though he's eight years old, he's really about two, but he's improving all the time. He was born with "congenital anomalies."

because that could be culprit too.