Review Articles

Anaesthesia associated developmental neurotoxicity (AADN) 2015

Ramona Ramklass, Neil Hauser, Andrew I. Levin
Southern African Journal of Anaesthesia and Analgesia | Vol 22, No 1 | a830 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/22201181.2015.1126980 | © 2016 Ramona Ramklass, Neil Hauser, Andrew Ian Levin | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 03 November 2025 | Published: 17 March 2016

About the author(s)

Ramona Ramklass, Private practice, Cape Town, South Africa
Neil Hauser, Department of Anaesthesia, Groote Schuur and Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospitals, Cape Town, South Africa
Andrew I. Levin, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Stellenbosch University, South Africa; and, Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa

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Abstract

The long-term cerebral effects of general anaesthesia at the extremes of age are currently enjoying attention. In children, the concern is that exposure to anaesthesia when less than 4 years of age may cause subsequent learning disabilities and behavioural changes. However, clinical equipoise exists as the available human studies are imperfect and the results of the large-scale multinational trials are not yet available. This structured narrative review summarises the overwhelming amount of information available.

Keywords

anaesthesia; synaptogenesis; apoptosis; plasticity; gamma amino butyric acid; GABA; neurotoxicity; neurogenesis; neuroprotection; learning disability; calcium homeostasis

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