This is a question of great concern worldwide, and in the past, anesthesiologists may have given the families of children a less than clear answer based on their clinical experience. Happily, there is now a scientific answer to this question. The Lancet, a leading medical journal, published the results of a multicenter, randomized controlled study of 28 hospitals in seven countries, including Australia, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand. This study recruited infants who were born at more than 26 weeks gestational age, were under 60 weeks of age and required inguinal hernia repair, and infants with risk factors for neurologic injury were excluded from the study. The included infants were randomly assigned and 363 infants received conscious local anesthesia (spinal anesthesia) and 359 infants received sevoflurane general anesthesia. All infants were assessed at 2 years of age with the Bayley Infant and Toddler Development Scale III Composite Cognitive Score. The results of the study showed that sevoflurane general anesthesia for less than 1 hour in infancy did not increase the risk of adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 years of age compared with local anesthesia. This study tells our parents that general anesthesia for infants and children is safe and does not cause adverse neurodevelopmental effects.