by Arlene B. Baratz, MD
Chair, Medical and Research Policy Committee: interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth
Coordinator, Medical and Research Affairs: AIS-DSD Support Group
In 2017, FDA announced that pediatric anesthesia may negatively affect brain development and issued its strongest possible warning. [16] The potential risk of anesthetic neurotoxicity in children with SWCAH is highlighted by results of a March 2018 study that are generalizable to other populations because of the large number of children evaluated. A large population-based study from Australia shows that young children exposed to general anesthesia have poorer development on school entry testing and worse results on subsequent standardized school tests than their unexposed peers, especially if they are repeatedly hospitalized.[17] Schneuer et al, in The Impact of General Anesthesia on Child Development and School Performance: a Population-based Study correlate school data with anesthetic exposure in children from Australia’s state of New South Wales (NSW). Among those exposed to general anesthesia, internationally-validated developmental assessment measures are available for 82,156 children, and nationally-validated school test results for reading and numeracy (ability to work with numbers) for 153,025 children. 16% of children were exposed to anesthesia. Chil