On April 12, 2014, the Pediatric Anesthesia and NeuroDevelopment Assessment (PANDA) study team held its fourth biennial scientific symposium at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York (MS-CHONY). The symposium was organized by the PANDA study team and co-sponsored by the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian and the Department of Anesthesiology of Columbia University. The PANDA symposium has become a platform to review current preclinical and clinical data related to anesthetic neurotoxicity, to discuss relevant considerations in study design and approaches to future research among clinicians and researchers, and finally to engage key stakeholders in this controversial public health topic. Program attendants and speakers represented many of the most active investigators in the area of pediatric anesthetic neurotoxicity as well as stakeholders from many different backgrounds outside of anesthesia that provided their own unique perspectives, concerns, and input regarding anesthetic-related neurotoxicity in children.
*Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA
†Department of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY
Supported by Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian (MS-CHONY) and the Department of Anesthesiology of Columbia University.
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Reprints: Lena S. Sun, MD, Department of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, CH 4-440 North, 622 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032 (e-mail: lss4@cumc.columbia.edu).
Received July 21, 2014
Accepted July 21, 2014
