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IMPLICATIONS: Two hours of isoflurane anesthesia with or without nitrous oxide impairs the ability of aged rats to acquire a novel spatial memory task 2 wk later.

Although the effects of general anesthesia may be promptly and entirely reversible, we have previously demonstrated lasting impairment on a spatial memory task in rats after a single 2-h isoflurane (ISO)-nitrous oxide (N 2 O) anesthetic (1, 2). In one study, where rats were trained on a radial arm maze for 2 mo before anesthesia and then tested for 8 wk beginning 24 h after anesthesia, the ability of aged rats to improve their maze performance was worse than that of identically treated, unanesthetized control rats (1). Similarly, in a study where young and aged rats were anesthetized with ISO-N 2 O and then tested for 3 wk beginning 48 h after anesthesia, the ability of both age groups to acquire the task was impaired after anesthesia (2). These results …