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Objective To evaluate the feasibility and security of general anesthesia for elective surgery in infants with mild upper respiratory tract infections (URI). Methods A total of 169 cases of infants underwent general anesthesia for elective surgery, ASA I or II, both sexes, aged 20 days to 36 months, were divided into URI group (n = 41) and non-URI group (n = 128), according to the preoperative symptoms of URI. The general data, the perioperative and postoperative respiratory-related complications were observed and recorded. Results (1) There was a higher incidence rate of breath holding during the operation in URI group than that of URI group. There were no significant differences in cough, sputum, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) < 0.95, fever, glossoptosis between two groups. No fever was found in both groups. There was a higher incidence rate of sputum after operation in URI group. There were no significant differences in other complications including cough, SpO2 <0.95, fever, glossoptosis and incidence rate of breath holding between two groups. No laryngospasm and bronchospasm were found during operation and after operation in two groups. (2)The incidence of postoperative cough and fever increased, while the incidence rates of SpO2 < 0.95 and glossoptosis were lower after operation compared with those during operation in non-URI group. In URI group, the incidence rate of postoperative fever was higher, and SpO2 < 0.95 and breath holding was lower. There were no significant differences in other complications in URI group. Conclusion It is feasible and relatively safe to implement tracheal intubation general anesthesia for the infants with mild URI under thorough preoperative assessment and careful operative management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently sevoflurane is the volatile anesthetic most wildly used in pediatric surgery. Whether neonatal exposure to sevoflurane brings about a long-lasting adverse impact even at juvenile and adult age, attracts extensive concerns. However, to date the consensus has not been reached and how exposure to sevoflurane in early life affects long-term ability of learning and memory is not fully elucidated. To obtain further insight into this issue, 32 neonatal SD rats were assigned into control group (group C, n=16) and sevoflurane group (group SEV, n=16). At postnatal day 7 (P7), 14 (P14) and 21 (P21) rats pups in group SEV received repeated exposure to 2.6% sevoflurane for 2 h. At juvenile and adult age, Morris water maze (MWM) was used to determine the spatial memory performance. Subsequently long-term and short-term synaptic plasticity in hippocampal CA1 region were investigated by in vivo electrophysiological method. Our behavioral data revealed that repeated exposure to 2.6% sevoflurane in early life did not result in marked behavioral abnormalities. However, in electrophysiological experiment, long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampal neurons of animals neonatally exposed to sevoflurane was significantly inhibited as compared to animals in group C at both juvenile and adult age. Pair-pulse facilitation (PPF) ratio in group SEV at juvenile and adult age was augmented to varying extent. These effects were most noticeable at juvenile stage with tendency of alleviation during adulthood. The present study provides an alternative explanation for the mechanism underlying developmental neurotoxicity of sevoflurane, which may ameliorate future preventive and therapeutic strategies., Competing Interests: None.