Children exposed to anesthesia before age 3 have an increased risk for long-term deficits in receptive and expressive language and abstract reasoning at age 10, according to an Australia-based study.

Researchers conducted a study of 2,608 children, 321 of whom were exposed to anesthesia before age 3. Even a single exposure was associated with increased risk of deficit in receptive language and abstract reasoning.

Meanwhile, the researchers found no evidence of an effect of anesthesia exposure on visual tracking and attention, fine and gross motor function or behavior.

The authors noted that this study differs from other studies through the use of directly administered neuropsychological assessments. Language levels were based on performance on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals test, while cognition was based on the Colored Progressive Matrices test.

Past studies have relied on academic scores, standardized test results, medical records and parent and teacher surveys. The assessments used in this study may be more sensitive than those used in prior studies and therefore able to detect subtle differences in specific neuropsychological domains, the researchers said.

The study appeared Aug. 20 on the website of Pediatrics. The study abstract, with a link to a PDF of the full study, is available at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2012/08/15/peds.2011-3822.