[Source: Science Daily]

Rhesus macaques repeatedly exposed to anesthesia during infancy display persistent anxiety-linked behaviors later in life in response to social stress, a study from Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shows.

The results were published online on March 1 by the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

Epidemiological studies of human children have detected an association between multiple exposures to anesthesia and learning problems. The cause-and-effect relationship is unclear because children who need surgery may have underlying medical issues. Also, research in other animal models, such as rodents, has shown anesthesia exposure early in life can lead to cell death in the brain and cognitive impairments.

In the Yerkes and Mount Sinai study, the research team sought to determine whether non-surgical exposure to sevoflurane, an inhaled anesthetic commonly used with children, could lead to cognitive and behavioral alterations in a nonhuman primate (NHP) model. A translational animal model for this type of study provides information for consideration in the human clinical population.

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