Autism & Anesthetic Exposure Study

Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinical Trial

Official title: Cognitive, Behavioural and Metabolic Effects of Anesthesia in Patients With Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Pilot Study

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

As anesthesia is often needed for childhood surgery and procedures, researchers have examined the potential effects of anesthesia on neurodevelopment. There are few studies that have examined the effect of anesthesia on neurodevelopment in children with confirmed diagnoses of ASD, and the results of these studies are mixed. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders can have age-dependent variations in brain anatomy, function, and connectivity, which may alter their sensitivity to the potential neurotoxic effects of anesthetic and sedative drugs. Given the potential adverse neurodevelopmental effects of anesthesia on typically developing children, it is important to examine if anesthesia exposure can worsen the clinical course of ASD.

Clinical Trial Description

We hypothesize that children with a confirmed diagnosis of ASD will regress developmentally following general anesthesia for dental surgery in comparison to children without ASD (controls) undergoing dental surgery. In this pilot study, we will investigate this hypothesis through the following objectives:

1. to determine in a clinical study if anesthesia induces post-operative persistent adverse changes children with ASD as compared with typically developing controls;

2. to determine the potential mechanism for the adverse effects of anesthetics on patients with ASD compared to healthy controls, peripheral blood mononuclear cells will be isolated from blood samples (PBMCs), before genomic DNA isolation for mitochondrial content analysis. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Autistic Disorder

• NCT number: NCT03514498
• Study type: Observational
• Source: The Hospital for Sick Children
• Status: Completed
• Start date: March 28, 2018
• Completion date: May 31, 2020