Prenatal anesthetic exposure and offspring neurodevelopmental outcomes-A narrative review

Area of Science:

• Anesthesiology
• Neuroscience
• Developmental Pediatrics

Background:

• Anesthesia use during pregnancy is common.
• Long-term neurodevelopmental effects of prenatal anesthesia exposure (PAE) in offspring require clarification.
• Animal studies indicate PAE can lead to neurotoxicity, including histomorphological changes and impaired learning and memory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review current research on PAE and offspring neurodevelopment.
• To discuss findings from both animal experimental and clinical studies.
• To introduce methods for assessing child neurodevelopment and potential confounding factors.

Main Methods:

• This is a narrative review.
• It synthesizes data from preclinical animal research.
• It analyzes findings from regional birth cohort studies using specialized questionnaires and scales.

Main Results:

• Animal models demonstrate that in utero anesthetic exposure can induce neurotoxic effects in newborns.
• Clinical studies, often database-based, are convenient but complicated by long time intervals between exposure and outcome assessment.
• Numerous confounding factors in clinical studies can significantly influence offspring neurodevelopment, potentially overshadowing the impact of PAE.

Conclusions:

• The long-term neurodevelopmental consequences of PAE remain an area needing further investigation.
• Clinical research on PAE is challenged by the complexity of isolating effects from confounding variables.
• Future research should carefully consider and control for confounding factors when assessing neurodevelopmental outcomes after PAE.