Anaesthesia-induced developmental neuroapoptosis (cell suicide): implications for obstetric anaesthesia

Nitrous Oxide on the Labour Ward: Will We Still Be Laughing in Ten Years?

“…In the United States The Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) and The National Institute for Health ( NIH ) has authorised an expert working panel to review the issue of anaesthesia induced apoptopic neurodegeneration in the fetal and neonatal brain. 2 Recent experimental work on primarily rat models has highlighted the ability of anaesthetics that are NMDA antagonists or have GABA mimetic properties to trigger neuroapotosis in the developing fetal and neonatal brain. In rats this apoptosis has been associated with permanent brain damage with impairment in memory and learning.…”