Side effects

Overall, anaesthesia in children is a very safe procedure nowadays. Complications can of course never be excluded, but have become rare. After waking up from anesthesia, the child may complain of nausea or vomit (in 10% of cases).

Some children also have sore throats, which can be caused by minor injuries from the breathing tube. Last but not least, some children are agitated, restless and whiny after anesthesia. This can be caused by after-effects of the medication and is initially not a cause for concern.

Permanent damage is generally not to be feared with today’s procedures and drugs. Nevertheless, operations under general anesthesia should only be performed if absolutely necessary. The latest findings from US-American studies have shown that gas anaesthesia in the first year of life can have a lasting effect on memory performance.

Reports of complications and accidents under general anesthesia have appeared repeatedly. General anesthesia in children in particular has been hotly debated for some time and many parents are concerned about exposing their child to general anesthesia. However, it is certainly appropriate to pay sufficient attention to this topic.

In the meantime, some studies have been commissioned for this reason. An interim balance can hardly be drawn so far, since the few studies published so far are partly contradictory or are strongly criticized. So for instance an American study, which apparently proves that general anaesthetics cause lifelong damage to the brain of children.

Since however only a very small group of children with very different basic diseases were examined, this study can hardly be used as an argument. In contrast, the results of several German, Dutch and American studies show that the brain of children is more sensitive than the brain of adults, but also has a much greater capacity for repair. General anesthesia in children is therefore quite acceptable.

The next question to be asked is from which side effects a child can suffer directly after a general anaesthetic. In this respect, it should be said that in recent decades, anaesthesia has developed into a very safe procedure. Thanks to newly developed, very well tolerated drugs and continuous medical monitoring, the rate of serious complications is very low nowadays.

Nevertheless, minor side effects often cannot be avoided. It should be noted that concerns for the well-being of one’s own child are by no means inappropriate. “The best operation is always the one that can be avoided”, is an old medical wisdom.

However, it should always be assessed how important an operation ultimately is for the later development of the child. There is hardly a doctor who will ask a child to undergo surgery that he or she does not consider urgent. However, it is not only emergency operations that are discussed, but also minor operations. For example, the often underestimated undescended testicles can lead to permanent damage if left untreated.In this case, a single general anaesthetic is preferable to a lifelong increased risk of testicular cancer or permanent infertility.