Neonatal sevoflurane anesthesia can also affect rat medulla spinalis

Anesthesia has been linked to neuroapoptosis and prolonged neurocognitive disorders in the neonatal rat brain, but the full extent of damage induced by anesthesia on the central nervous system is still unknown.

We aim to investigate whether sevoflurane anesthesia affects the spinal cord.

After the approval of the ethics committee, 24 Wistar albino rat pups, weighing between 9 g and 11 g, on the postnatal 7th day were included in the study. In the sevoflurane groups, rats breathed 2.5% sevoflurane in oxygen. The tail flick tests were performed on postnatal 8th, 15th, and 30th days to evaluate motor functions. At the end of the experiments, rats were sacrificed by decapitation, and their spinal cords were taken for histopathological evaluation.

There was a significant difference between the tail pulling times on the 8th and 30th days in both groups (P = 0.036). No significant difference was found between the control and sevoflurane groups (P = 0.053). In histopathological assessments, the chronic sevoflurane group showed a significant increase in apoptotic cell count (P < 0.001).

This study showed that although there was a significant increase in apoptotic cells in the chronic sevoflurane group, motor function of the spinal cord was not affected. Further studies can be conducted to investigate the possible mechanisms.