Anesthesia may cause memory problems

Getting a knee replacement may lead to memory problems later on, new research claims.

Scientists found middle-aged patients who were given general anesthesia before surgery performed slightly worse on memory tests.

Researchers said this was due to cognitive changes in the brain related to immediate memory, or the ability to remember information over a brief period,

The findings, published in the journal Anaesthesia, are the latest to link anesthesia to memory loss.

Surgery and anesthesia could lead to memory problems, new research claims

‘The cognitive changes after surgery are small – most probably asymptomatic and beneath a person’s awareness,’ said senior author Dr Kirk Hogan, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For the study, Dr Hogan and his colleagues measured memory and executive function in 964 participants, with the average age of 54, who had no signs of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or cognitive impairment before surgery.

Of the participants, 312 of them had at least one surgical procedure performed and 652 of them did not.

Researchers found there was a decline in immediate memory over the course of four years in participants who had surgery.

Memory became abnormal in 18 percent of those who had at least one surgical procedure compared with 10 percent of those who had not. 

Regarding the working memory test, surgery and anesthesia were associated with a decline in immediate memory by one point out of a possible maximum test score of 30 points.

They found no differences in other measures of memory and executive function between those who had surgery and their counterparts. 

‘Taken together, these data suggest that patients having surgery and anesthesia are more likely to experience impaired performance on neuropsychological tests of memory and executive function, an association that might be causal,’ researchers wrote in the study.

This isn’t the first study to link anesthesia with brain changes and memory loss.

A 2014 study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that a third of patients who undergo anesthesia and surgery experience some kind of cognitive impairment – including confusion and poor brain functioning.

The four-year-old study suggests this has something to do with memory-loss receptors in the brain, which are activated by anesthetic drugs to ensure patients don’t remember traumatic events during surgery.

Researchers found the activity of memory loss receptors remains high long after the drugs have been eliminated from the patient’s body.    

Furthermore, a 2016 study published in the journal Anaesthesia found cognitive decline in elderly patients increased after surgery.

However, experts said other risk factors like the sort of disease or illness a person have could impact brain function.

Michael Avidan, an anesthesiologist and researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, told PBS that certain diseases like hypertension and diabetes may also be responsible for cognitive decline in patients who have had surgery.

‘Whether or not they undergo surgery I can predict that those people are going to decline cognitively more than people who are marathon runners who are fit,’ said Avidan, who was not involved in the study.

However, Dr Hogan noted that it is too early to recommend any changes in clinical practice regarding prevention, diagnosis, management, and prognosis of cognitive changes after surgery.



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk