The most basic pediatric anesthesia can be described as: sleep + pain relief = anesthesia. Sleep is very important for pediatric surgery because pediatric patients have a high level of fear for surgery, and it is difficult to tolerate pain and the uncomfortable feeling caused by fixed posture during surgery, so they need to be given sufficient amount of drugs to sleep, and the commonly used ones such as Valium and Imipramine have been clinically used for a long time, and they are proven to have no big side effects and can wake up naturally. Commonly used pediatric analgesics include local anesthetics, central analgesics and inhalation anesthetics. The central analgesics and inhalation anesthetics currently used in clinical practice are injected subcutaneously or breathed into the bloodstream by the lungs and take effect. The effect on the brain in this way is transient, i.e., the pain-relieving effect is produced when the concentration in the blood reaches a certain amount. As the drug is metabolized and transformed, the concentration in the blood decreases, the pain-relieving effect decreases, the anesthesia becomes lighter, and the child is awake when the drug is about to be drained. As soon as the supply of inhaled anesthetics is reduced, the drug is quickly excreted from the exhaled gas and the child wakes up with the lighter anesthesia. In the process of waking up from anesthesia, the child is in a trance and drowsy, but it is normal to be able to respond to the call. Therefore, we say that the anesthetic drug only temporarily acts on the child’s nerves, and the nervous system will return to normal function after the anesthesia. There are no institutions or data worldwide that show a direct relationship between a child’s intelligence and anesthesia under regular anesthesia. Of course, there is no evidence that anesthesia has no effect on the pediatric nervous system at all. So-called “anesthesia stupidity” or anesthesia accident Some people may say, “Some children become stupid because of surgical anesthesia.” This situation should be analyzed in detail. As we know, human brain cells are poorly tolerant of oxygen deprivation, and a general interruption of brain oxygen supply for 5 to 8 minutes can cause irreversible brain cell damage. During anesthesia or surgery, if the patient vomits due to various stimuli, posterior tongue drop blocking the airway, laryngospasm occurring asphyxia and other conditions can lead to cerebral hypoxia. Cerebral hypoxia can also occur during cardiac arrest, hemorrhage, and hemorrhagic shock, which can lead to mental retardation or even other more serious adverse consequences if not rescued in time. These are all possible accidents in anesthesia and cannot be simply considered as caused by the use of anesthetic drugs. The risk of pediatric anesthesia can be higher than that of adults Although the claim that children become dumber because of surgical anesthesia lacks foundation, does it mean that anesthesia for pediatric patients is risk-free? The answer is: there are definitely risks, and in a sense pediatric anesthesia is more risky than adult anesthesia. Because children’s organs are not yet well developed and their bodies are less able to compensate than adults, they are more likely to have anesthesia accidents. Therefore, for older children, if they can really cooperate during the surgery, it is better not to have anesthesia as much as possible, so that the safety factor will be relatively higher. However, for younger children, if anesthesia is the only way to successfully complete the surgery, parents should not be worried about the impact on the child’s intelligence and refuse anesthesia. Of course, anesthesia as a special drug also has certain side effects, and the process of anesthesia is not as simple as inserting a needle and letting the child sleep, but requires a professional anesthesiologist to carefully select the indications and master the dosage of the drug before it can be used safely. The anesthesiologist should be able to take effective countermeasures against possible accidents. Only in this way can the surgery be performed smoothly and accidents be minimized and avoided. Parents should pay attention to the pre-surgery visit Parents should pay attention to the pre-surgery visit of the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist can make anesthesia safety assessment only after knowing the child’s past medical history and physical condition, and then combine it with physical examination, and plan a reasonable anesthesia method and anesthetic drugs to reduce the chance of accidents. Parents of children should also listen to the anesthesiologist’s explanation of precautions, such as the child after a full stomach is prone to respiratory blockage due to vomiting and accidental aspiration, causing cerebral hypoxia, so the child should absolutely stop eating and abstain from water 4-6 hours before surgery. For children with full stomachs who need emergency surgery, parents should not say they have not eaten anything in order to hurry up the surgery. Only by telling the anesthesiologist the real situation, the anesthesiologist can make a reasonable choice after weighing the urgency of the operation and the safety of anesthesia, which will minimize the occurrence of accidents.