Cell changes in lymphocyte cultures of patients submitted to general anesthesia.

Women who work in operating rooms have an increased risk of spontaneous abortion and there appears to be a correlation in the incidence of miscarriage and operating room exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy (Euromed 1972, Cohen, Bellville and Brown 1971, .American Society of Anesthesiologists 1974). It is well known that spontaneous abortions in the general population represent a fetal wastage (Potter and Adair 1963). The Geneva Conference (1966) concluded that chromosomal abnormalities were a significant factor in spontaneous abortions. In a study of spontaneous abortions occurring at less than 20 weeks, 50% of 127 specimens obtained showed chromosomal abnormali ties (Arakaki and Waxman 1970). Among the children of women who work in operating rooms, there is apparently an increased incidence of congenital anomalies (Corbett et al. 1974), probably related to the degree of exposure. Regarding the small series from female nurse anesthetists, around 16% of the children whose mothers practiced during pregnancy had birth defects, whereas less than 6% of the children had congenital anomalies if their mothers had not worked in operating rooms during pregnancy. The differences were highly significant. An apparently high death rate from malignancies among anesthesiologists had been reported (Bruce et al. 1968), but not confirmed (Bruce et al. 1974). The teratogenic effect of inhaled anesthetics in animals has been studied by several authors (Askrog and Harvald 1970, Smith 1969, personal communica tion), with convincing evidence for teratogenicity. A few studies have been made of cultured lymphocytes taken from patients following surgery. One of the observations made was of depressed immunological competence in these cells (Park, Brody and Wallace 1971). This phenomenon was reflected by a diminished ability of the cells to incorporate 14C-thymidine