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Piracetam improves children's memory after general anaesthesia

Ułbołgan A Fesenko1

  • 1Kharkiv National Medical University, Kharkiv, Ukraine. vfesenko@yahoo.com

Anestezjologia Intensywna Terapia
|June 13, 2009
PubMed

Insights

General anesthesia impacts children's memory, particularly long-term recall. Piracetam effectively prevents postoperative cognitive dysfunction in children after anesthesia.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Anesthesiology
  • Neuroscience
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Postoperative complications, including cognitive impairment, can arise from surgery and anesthesia.
  • General anesthetics may negatively affect cognitive functions in children.
  • Assessing the impact of anesthesia on pediatric memory is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the influence of general anesthetics on children's memory.
  • To determine the effectiveness of piracetam in preventing postoperative cognitive dysfunction.

Main Methods:

  • 123 children received intravenous piracetam (30 mg/kg), while 127 received a placebo post-surgery.
  • Cognitive functions were assessed preoperatively and for 10 days post-surgery.
  • The ten-word memory test was used to evaluate memory function.

Main Results:

  • All anesthetized children experienced declines in memory indexes.
  • Long-term memory was the most significantly affected cognitive function.
  • Piracetam administration led to improvements in memory function.

Conclusions:

  • General anesthesia demonstrably affects memory function in pediatric patients.
  • Piracetam is an effective agent for preventing anesthesia-related cognitive dysfunction in children.
Abstract

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