Is Anesthesia Safe for Kids in Surgeries

Anesthetics are being used by humans for thousands of years during medical procedures. The earliest anesthetics are believed to be opium used in the Ancient Sumerian civilization almost 6,000 years back. In other parts of the world, patients would be sedated by vapors of cannabis and herbs such as aconitum. In some places, a mixture of wine and herbs was also used. But like the medical technology of that time, these anesthetics weren’t very effective. In some cases, the sedative would be too powerful, which could cause paralysis or even death. In others, it would be too weak to mask the pain.

But thankfully, anesthetics have come a long way since then. There have been tremendous advancements made in the chemicals used as an anesthetic as well as in the manner they are administered. But still, people are worried about how safe anesthesia is, especially when administered to children.

How Safe is Anesthesia for Children?

Well, the short answer is that it is very safe. The estimated rate of deaths related to anesthesia is 8.2 per million hospital surgical discharges, according to a study titled ‘Epidemiology of Anesthesia-related Mortality in the United States, 1999–2005’ published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information.

In another study on 2,500 ninth graders, no significant difference was observed between the cognitive abilities of students who were exposed to a single dose of anesthesia for hernia operation and those who never went under anesthesia.

But anesthesia needs to administered in the right manner and the necessary precautions need to be taken for it to be safe. Lengthy or repeated use of anesthesia on children younger than 3 years can affect the development of the brain. For the use to be lengthy, it must be for more than 3 hours, such as in pediatric cardiac surgeries. For those, the best heart specialist hospitals in top cities like Hyderabad and Mumbai need to be consulted for best results.

But the chances of any major side effects because of anesthesia are very low. However, there are mild side effects can be seen such as:

• Vomiting or nausea. But this can be easily treated with anti-nausea medication.
• Shakiness or chills.
• In case a tube is used to help with berating, then the child may also experience a sore throat.

Why Modern Anesthetics are Much Safer

Today, anesthesiologists reduce the risk of any complications by getting necessary information about the patient such as:

• The current and past health condition of the child.
• Any medicines, supplements, or herbal remedies that the child might be taking.
•  Any existent allergies
• If the child or someone from their family previously had a reaction to anesthesia.

Anesthesiologists also use a pulse oximeter to make sure that the child is getting enough oxygen during the procedure. This ensures that the breathing tube is going into the trachea and not the esophagus. Controlling malignant hyperthermia has also become much easier in the past few decades. Plus, alcohol-based solutions are not used to sterilize the glass bottles used for storing anesthetics anymore. In case, alcohol leaked into the bottle it could cause paralysis. 

Anesthetics are extremely safe for children. But the important thing is that they are administered by an experienced anesthesiologist. For instance, if your child needs a heart surgery, do not postpone it because of your fear of anesthesia. But make sure that you choose an experienced heart specialist in a respectable hospital in Hyderabad or any other major city.