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10th March 2010
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AUK Staff
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 We found that repeated anaesthesia wiped out a large portion of the stem cells in the hippocampus... |
| Professor Klas Blomgren | A new study, published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, has found that repeated anaesthesia in children may be associated with memory impairment. Klas Blomgren, professor at the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital and researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, said:
"Paediatric anaesthetists have long suspected that children who are anaesthetised repeatedly over the course of just a few years may suffer from impaired memory and learning. This is a theory that is also supported by foreign research."
The discovery was made by chance, during a study into the effects of strong magnetic fields on stem cells in the brain, using rats and mice. The study showed that although the magnetic fields did not affect the animals, repeated anaesthesia did.
Professor Blomgren explained:
"We found that repeated anaesthesia wiped out a large portion of the stem cells in the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is important for memory. The stem cells in the hippocampus can form new nerve and glial cells, and the formation of nerve cells is considered important for our memory function."
These findings were also associated with impaired memory in animals as they got older. The effect was seen only in young rats or mice that had been anaesthetised, but not when adult animals were anaesthetised.
Professor Blomgren said:
"Despite extensive attempts, we have not been able to understand exactly what happens when the stem cells are wiped out. We couldn't see any signs of increased cell death, but are speculating that the stem cells lose their ability to divide."
In previous animal studies, Blomgren et al. found that physical activity after radiotherapy can result in a greater number of new stem cells and partly replace those that have been lost.
Blomgren concludes:
"… the new nerve cells seem to work better in animals that exercise. Now that we know this, we can come up with treatments that prevent or reverse the loss of stem cells after repeated anaesthesia".
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Comments
 Dr Awad Mohamed ali |
13/3/10 05:13
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I do not know how but my daughter (9 yrs) had a general anaesthetic once (before starting going to school) for tendon elongation by Sevoflurene, but some times she is remembering things that I do not remember my self and she is very good at remembering school lessons specially numbers and mathematics. Could anaesthesia be the reason? |
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