Children who undergo surgery before 3 years and are exposed to general anesthesia, have a double risk of behavioral or developmental problems than other children.
According to lead author Charles DiMaggio, an assistant professor of clinical epidemiology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons' Mailman School of Public Health in New York City,"There really is no hard evidence that there is any causal association between anesthesia and developmental outcomes in children, though research in rat models indicates that there may be some association between the types of anesthesia and neuronal [brain cell] level changes. The early concern is, could these data be extrapolated to humans?"