A new study disclosed that kids below four years who are administered general anaesthesia are at higher risk of developing learning disabilities as compared to other children of similar age.

Randall Flick, an anesthesiologist and pediatrician from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and his fellow workers identified 593 children born between 1976 and 1982 who have been anesthetized during surgical intervention until their age of 4.

The researchers also identified over 4,700 children who did not anesthetized during the same period.

They found that kids being anesthetized twice bore a 59% higher risk of being impaired in their learning ability.

In contrast, kids being anesthetized once had no risk of being impaired in their learning ability.

The study researchers also said that kids who remained under anesthesia for over two hours carried the greatest risk in this connection.

Tom Hansen, a paediatric-anaesthesiologist at Denmark's Odense University Hospital said, “This is indeed a very important and in many ways a thorough study.”

The findings of the study will be published in the April version of ‘Anaesthesiology’.