Memory loss after anesthesia

Some patients, especially the elderly, may be susceptible to postoperative dementia, with symptoms similar to those with early Alzheimer's disease. That is, they often forget miscellaneous stories, small details, and ask questions over and over again.
The postoperative dementia is called Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction (POCD), a condition that is common to many people, especially the elderly.

Some POCD patients have memory problems, others lose the ability to do many things at once, work out of order, have a confused head and tail, and cannot learn or learn anything. new.
In fact, no one patient has the same symptoms, each has a different set of symptoms. Symptoms often come on suddenly several days or weeks after surgery. In most cases, this is only a temporary condition and should go away after a few months. In some patients, however, it can last for months, or years.Currently, there are many questions or doubts about this dementia. How is distraction measured? Is this a symptom, an independent disease or related to a number of other neurological diseases? Can this disease be prevented or effectively treated? Is this disease different from dementia in older people as they get older?
Many patients or relatives in the patient's family have complained that after surgery, it is easy to forget, difficult to focus, or no longer be the same and change mood. However, these are general comments only. To prove the condition, some psychiatric trials before and after surgery may be required for comparison. Currently there are trials being offered and tested a week before and then compared to three months after surgery. These tests are based on well-defined criteria, not general ambiguity.
Postoperative dementia was noted and studied 20 years ago, and cases of anesthesia were reported 100 years ago.

A 1999 study showed that among patients over 60 years old, 25.8% had a loss of dementia a week after surgery and 9.9% had dementia 3 months after surgery.

Two years later, another study from Duke University of Medicine found that 53% of patients after heart surgery experienced a decrease in dementia immediately after discharge, 36% after 6 weeks, and 24% after 6 months. , and 42% after 5 years.

Another study from the Neurosurgery Center at the Mount Sinai University of Medicine in New York found that more than 30% of patients over 55 had a loss of nervous system performance three months after anesthesia. for any kind of surgery.
Although reduced dementia can occur in many younger patients, most of them are elderly, have low education and have problems with memory or thinking ability before surgery. Patients over 60 are twice as likely to suffer dementia as younger patients. The condition sometimes affects the quality of life, even the life expectancy after surgery.

The researchers evaluated the effect of anesthetics, extent and duration of anesthesia on the risk of POCD disease. The degree of change in the amount of blood flowing to the brain is also investigated during anesthesia. So far, there is no clear conclusion.
So, what causes dementia after anesthesia? Was it because of the anesthesia or the surgery itself? Evidence now shows that it is not because of the anesthesia but the stress caused by surgery and because of the disease that led to the operation.
Life stress can also cause memory loss. Likewise, during surgery, stress can cause cells to become inflamed, called inflammation. When the patient is young, this inflammation does not affect the brain, but the elderly have weaker levels of prevention and protection of the brain, so nerve cells are susceptible to inflammation due to stress.

The problem is, if surgery is required, there is no other option. However, if you know the phenomenon of dementia due to stress due to surgery to prepare and prevent stress reduction, you can reduce the risk. On the other hand, you can choose surgery methods that don't last longer, or other treatments that don't need surgery. Finally, before going to surgery, you should prepare to arrange what to do, or ask your loved ones to take care of them to forget and thus reduce stress.

Dr. Ho Ngoc Minh