Anesthesiology
October 21, 2026 · via Europe PMC
Childhood Exposure to General Anesthesia For Surgery: Identification of a Subtle Post-Operative Cognitive Phenotype.
Salaün JP, Menu I, Aguiar T, Le Stanc L, Vivien D, Poirel N
AI summary — for doctors, generated from the abstract only
Childhood general anesthesia for surgery did not reduce overall executive function, but hinted at a subtle cognitive profile difference.
What was studied
Ambidirectional cohort of 77 children aged 9-11, with or without prior general anesthesia, tested on eight measures of executive function and visuo-spatial attention.
Key findings
- No overall effect of anesthesia exposure on executive function was found (p = .92).
- Two profiles were identified, and exposure was associated with lower odds of the Efficient Executive Control profile (OR 0.71).
- The exposed profile showed greater visuo-spatial global-local precedence.
Clinical relevance
This adds reassurance about overall cognition after early anesthesia while suggesting a subtle processing style difference worth further study.
Who should care
Limitations
Small sample, exploratory profile analysis and an implausibly narrow confidence interval reported, with confounding by surgery or illness possible.
Reassure families that no overall executive deficit was seen, without over-interpreting the exploratory profile finding.
This is an AI-generated summary of the published abstract, not a clinical recommendation. It may not reflect the full text or subsequent updates — verify against the original source before acting on it.
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Early-life exposure to general anesthesia has not been consistently associated with overall cognitive deficits, yet its impact on executive functions and visuo-spatial processing remains unclear. The primary objective was to assess executive function performance, according to general anesthesia exposure for surgery. The secondary objectives were to explore distinct cognitive profiles and their associated factors, as well as to examine visuo-spatial attention as a complementary domain.
METHODS
In this ambidirectional cohort study, 77 children aged 9-11 years, with or without prior general anesthesia exposure for surgery, completed a cognitive battery yielding eight cognitive measures assessing inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and visuo-spatial attention. Measures were analyzed using a linear mixed-effects model. Exploratory latent profile analysis was used to identify cognitive performance profiles.
RESULTS
No significant main effect of general anesthesia exposure for surgery was observed (χ²(1) =.01, p =.92), indicating comparable overall executive function performance between exposed (mean age at exposure: 4.47 ± 3.00 years) and non-exposed. Latent profile analysis identified two executive function profiles: Efficient and Vulnerable Executive Control. General anesthesia exposure was associated with lower odds of belonging to the Efficient profile group (OR = 0.71, 95% CI [0.705, 0.710], p <.001). Regarding visuo-spatial attention, GA-exposed participants showed higher Global-Local precedence measures (estimate = 0.53, 95% CI [0.04, 1.01], p =.036).
CONCLUSIONS
Early childhood exposure to general anesthesia was not associated with reduced overall executive function. However, a potential post-operative cognitive phenotype is suggested by a reduced likelihood to belong to an efficient executive control profile with greater visuo-spatial global-local precedence.
DOI
10.1097/ALN.0000000000006429
PMID
42904759
Research metadata (titles, abstracts, authors, publication dates) is sourced from Europe PMC, which aggregates content from PubMed/MEDLINE, PubMed Central, and other providers under the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM/NCBI). NLM does not claim copyright on abstracts; the original journal publishers or authors may hold rights to the full articles. AI-generated summaries are derived only from the abstract, never the full text, and are always labeled as AI-generated.
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