CHICAGO — People 60 and older who undergo
elective surgery may be at higher risk of lasting memory
problems, US researchers said on Wednesday.
They said people 60 and older who have major
surgeries such as joint replacements or hysterectomies are more
likely to have cognitive problems after surgery.
And those who do are more likely to die in
the first year after their surgery.
"We have known that patients undergoing heart
surgery are at risk for cognitive dysfunction – problems with
memory, concentration, processing of information – but the
effects of non-cardiac surgeries on brain function are not as
well-understood," said Dr. Terri Monk, an anesthesiologist at
Duke University Medical Center, whose study appears in the
journal Anesthesiology.
Monk led a team that examined hospital
discharge records of 1,064 patients aged 18 and older who
underwent testing for memory and cognitive function before
surgery, at the time of discharge from the hospital and three
months later.
They were put into three age groups: young
(18-39), middle-aged (40-59) and elderly (60 and older). The
groups were all of similar size.
Three months after surgery, cognitive
deficits occurred in 12.7 percent of elderly patients, compared
with just 5.7 percent of those in the young group or 5.6 percent
in the middle-aged group.
The study suggests that overall, some 30 to
41 percent of adult patients undergoing major non-cardiac
surgery have some form of memory or processing problem when they
are discharged, but most people recover after three months.
But those 60 and older were more than twice
as likely to still have problems three months after surgery. And
those that had problems were more likely to die within the first
year after surgery.
It is not clear why some patients suffer
these problems, but it may be that surgery and anesthesia cause
swelling in the brain that can affect the patient’s ability to
learn, retain or remember information, Monk said in a statement.
She said the study suggests the elderly may be predisposed to
cognitive problems after major surgery. And knowing this might
help doctors devise better strategies to prevent the effects of
surgery and anesthesia on the aging brain. – Reuters
