Exposure to Operative Anesthesia in Childhood and Subsequent Neurobehavioral Diagnoses: A Natural Experiment Using Appendectomy

Observational studies of anesthetic neurotoxicity may be biased because children requiring anesthesia commonly have medical conditions associated with neurobehavioral problems. This study takes advantage of a natural experiment associated with appendicitis to determine whether anesthesia and surgery in childhood were specifically associated with subsequent neurobehavioral outcomes.