All routinely used sedatives and anesthetics have been found to be neurotoxic in a wide variety of animal species, including nonhuman primates.
Several epidemiologic human studies have observed an association between anesthesia exposure in patients younger than 3 to 4 years and subsequent learning disabilities and language abnormalities, whereas others have not found this link.
It remains unresolved whether anesthetic exposure or other factors, such as the underlying medical condition, surgery, inflammatory response, pain, physiologic abnormalities during surgery, or other unknown factors, are causative for the observed abnormalities.
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Anesthetic Neurotoxicity
Anesthesiology Clinics, Volume 32, Issue 1, March 2014, Pages 133–155
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