Long-term neurodevelopment outcomes of regional vs general anesthesia for infants undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Whether regional anesthesia (RA) offers better long-term neurodevelopment outcomes compared to general anesthesia (GA) to infants undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy is still under heated debate. The aim of this meta-analysis is to compare the long-term neurodevelopment impact of RA with GA on infants undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy.

METHODS: A systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, clinicaltrials.gov and controlledtrials.com will be performed. Published eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs (including abstracts) through May 20, 2020 with language limit of English will be enrolled in the meta-analysis. Two reviewers will independently conduct the procedures of study selection, data extraction, methodological quality assessment, and risk of bias assessment. The primary outcome is long-term neurodevelopmental state (at 2- and 5-year follow-up) as reflected in the Bayley and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) scales of infants development following surgeries. The secondary outcomes consist of satisfactory intraoperative infants immobility, duration of surgery, any anesthetic failure, the supplement of postoperative analgesia, postoperative apnea, and postoperative bradycardia. The pooled weighted mean differences (WMDs) or odds ratios (ORs) of each outcome measurement and relative 95% confident intervals (CIs) will be calculated. EndNote X8 (Clarivate Analytics) software will be applied to manage all citations. The Cochrane Review Manager version 5.3 software (RevMan 5.3) will be employed for statistical analysis.

DISCUSSION: This study will summarize scientific and practical evidence and provide evidence-based individualized decision-making guidance on anesthesia regimen for inguinal herniorrhaphy in infants.

REGISTRATION: This protocol was registered with the International Platform of Registered Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols (INPLASY) on 17 June 2020 (registration number INPLASY202060064).