Elderly persons commonly face a deterioration in cognitive function after undergoing surgery that uses general anesthesia, which can continue for months and even years. Strong anesthesia while surgery has been associated with the deterioration of cognitive function.
General Anesthesia Doesn’t Impact The Brain Much! -12 Years Data
According to a recent study involving 1,823 persons (ages 25-84) for 12 years, patient characteristics such as hypertension, type two diabetes, and a poor educational background are better predictors of long-term cognitive impairment than frequent surgery under solid anesthesia.
The findings, presented at Euroanaesthesia, the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care’s (ESAIC) annual meeting, will help with attempts to keep people’s minds active as they grow old.
Decreased memory and focus are symptoms of postoperative cognitive decline (POCD), which can be transitory or last months or even years after surgery. Even though diagnosis for POCD still has not been defined and the reasons and factors associated are still being investigated, analysis suggests that one in ten patients above 60 show significant levels of cognitive deterioration three months following surgery.
Surgeries for the elderly have now become increasingly common. Twelve million individuals aged 60 and up are in the UK, with that figure predicted to rise to roughly 20 million before 2041. There are a significant amount of people who could be in danger.
Dutch scientists studied data from 1,823 adult people (sample’s average age was 51 years of which 50% were male) with a healthy cognitive performance from the Enrolment Network Family Activities – it is a register which represents the Dutch population to see if repeated exposure to surgery under general anesthesia during an individual’s lifetime harms natural cognitive decline or not.
Respondents were asked at the beginning of the study, then again six and twelve years afterward. Every exam comprised a physical examination as well as a series of cognitive function assessments to assess
learning and memory, brain control, mental processing speed, attention control, and logical speed (with word brain teaser and a color known as the Stroop test in which a word like “blue” or “purple” is written in green or red ink.) Individuals’ cognitive growth was examined through modeling, associated with independent risk variables.
Individuals that had more than two effective anesthetics even by the commencement of the test were elderly and much more likely to have many health problems, including hypertension, artery disease, or high blood cholesterol (hypercholesterolemia) than any of those who had not had an effective anesthetic.
After controlling for aspects that contribute to the risk of cognitive impairment, like age, gender, educational qualification, smoking status, alcoholism, and some other disease, the scientists have found that individuals receiving at least one general anesthetic performed much worse on the Stroop test (cognitive control and mental speed) than one who has never had surgery. Other aspects of cognitive functionality did not appear to be influenced by the number of general anesthetics used. It is believed that adulteration and a poor lifestyle primarily affect people’s health.
However, the results suggest that those persons with high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, a smoking history, and a low socioeconomic status had a considerably more significant impact on long-term cognitive impairment than undergoing a general anesthetic procedure.
The researchers caution that the research was observational, so they can’t prove cause and effect. They point out several restrictions, such as the lack of detailed data on the length and type of operation, as well as the notion that there had been a long follow-up time during which operational and anesthetic procedures may have changed over the years.
