General Anaesthesia Exposure

Exposure is classified by the number of surgical general anaesthesia episodes before age 7. General anaesthesia has shown neurotoxic effects in animal models, while human evidence is mixed. Repeated or prolonged anaesthesia exposure is hypothesised to pose greater developmental risk than a single brief exposure. The study evaluates whether surgical general anaesthesia before school age is associated with later neurodevelopment in children with congenital scoliosis. The study also records anaesthesia after age 7 for sensitivity and secondary analyses.