Delaying child's tonsillectomy does not lower risk of developmental disorder
"The question of whether commonly used anesthetics have any measurable adverse effect on neurodevelopment in children has been a hot topic in anesthesia and surgery for over a decade," said Guohua Li, MD, DrPH, professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health and Anesthesiology at Columbia University. "This rigorously designed study may help parents and clinicians to make informed decisions on elective surgeries for kids." The researchers analyzed data from individual Medicaid claims in Texas and New York from 1999 to 2010 to determine if the timing of exposure to anesthesia under the age of 5 was associated with increased subsequent risk of diagnoses for any mental disorder, such as developmental delays, including reading and language disorders, ADHD, depression , or anxiety. An association between anesthesia exposure and developmental delay or ADHD were also evaluated separately. Children who had any of one of four common procedures that requi...