Concerns about anesthesia's impact on the brain
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 - 22:00
in Health & Medicine
As pediatric specialists become increasingly aware that surgical anesthesia may have lasting effects on the developing brains of young children, new research suggests the threat may also apply to adult brains. Researchers report that testing in laboratory mice shows anesthesia's neurotoxic effects depend on the age of brain neurons -- not the age of the animal undergoing anesthesia, as once thought.