“For people with existing mild cognitive impairment, the surgery may be tipping them over the edge,” says Orser, who is also chair of the department of anesthesia at the University of Toronto. The brains of older patients and those with complex medical conditions appear to be especially vulnerable to this inflammatory assault. In particular, he adds, the immune system unleashes a cascade of cells that produce an inflammatory response, which continues to ramp up in intensity several days after the operation. Roderic Eckenhoff, vice-chair of research in the department of anesthesiology and critical care at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “Surgery is not a natural thing, and the body goes into a high state of alert,” says Dr.

They may not feel mentally impaired, although family members may notice a difference in their memory or behaviour.Įxperts believe the anesthetic drugs used to induce an unconscious state – so patients don’t feel pain or remember the surgery – may be partly responsible for the cognitive changes.īut the biggest contributor to the mental deficits, known as postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), might be the operation itself.

In some patients, the effects can be very subtle. The cognitive impairment seems to affect memory, word-finding and attention as well as certain “executive functions” of the brain, such as decision-making and problem-solving. What happens at the one-year mark is still debated,” she says, adding that some may never fully recover. “And one in 10 of those affected will still have problems three to six months later.

Memory master anesthesia