The GAS trial, a major global prospective study looking at the risks of current general anesthetics in young children published initial results in the January 2016 edition of The Lancet. SmartTots, the FDA program that led the funding of the trial cautions about reading too much into the preliminary results.
The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery released a report saying roughly a third of deaths worldwide are due to a lack of surgical access. With an estimated 5 billion people who lack access to safe and affordable surgical and anesthesia care and nearly 17 million lives lost due to surgical conditions in 2010, the report recommends a scaling up of the surgical and anesthesia workforce in fifteen years to double what it is today. The report in its entirety can be viewed here.
From zebrafish to monkeys, there is an increasing body of evidence suggesting commonly used general anesthetics are neurotoxic in juvenile animal studies. The translatability of these studies to the human population is still unclear, as currently available studies in young children are not sufficiently robust to either confirm the results seen in animal studies or 'provide assurance of safety.' What is clear is the US FDA is taking active steps to assess and understand the neurotoxic effects of general anesthetics to the developing brain.
A new study revealed that commonly used ether anesthetics are contributing to climate change. Scientists argue that the elimination of desflurane, the most potent contributor (1 kilogram of desflurane equates to 2500 kilograms of CO2), would help.
Expanesthetics Editor's Note: It is the policy of Expanesthetics to promote the development of cost effective recycling and remanufacturing technologies for anesthetic gases.
A leading anesthesia lab at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a high-throughput screening technique to identify new and novel compounds that may be general anesthetics, and has identified two for further study. The drug industry has not developed any truly novel general anesthetics since the 1970s, despite the myriad side effects associated with them. Dr. Rod Eckenhoff is particularly interested in addressing the cognitive issues associated with anesthesia in the elderly and very young.