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ANAESTHETIC ALZHEIMERS"BY-PASS BRAIN"Anaesthetic Alzheimers is a tragic development after surgery. Almost everyone knows someone who sadly developed what was presumed to be 'Alzheimer's Disease' after surgery. Were they were about to develop the disease anyway? Specialists are now acknowledging that the very young and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to anaesthetic Alzheimers disease. "If you do a perfect operation, and you have someone who comes out with say a perfect heart, it's just heart-wrenching if you have a neurological dysfunction." - Dr Aubrey Galloway Chairman of cardio-thoracic surgery: New York University School of Medicine.
The New England Journal of Medicine reports that more than half of heart by-pass patients awake with cognitive dysfunction, ranging from a stroke to memory loss.
World Congress of AnaesthesiologistsThe risk of permanent harm to neonates and the elderly from anaesthetic drugs was a hot topic at the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists in Cape Town early in 2008.Professor Mike JamesProfessor Mike James, UCT head of Anaesthesia and co-chairman of the Congress Scientific Programme, said: “Evidence is emerging on how anaesthetic drugs might alter the functions of the brain in the very young and older patients, and that this may be permanent."“This shows the need for more precise, better-targeted anaesthetic drugs,” said James, who is also head of the SA Society of Anaesthesiologists. As many as 10% of older patients run the risk of losing brain function after undergoing an anaesthetic and surgery. Professor Duncan MitchellEmeritus Professor Duncan Mitchell, of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Brain Function Research Group, said: “Every time you have an anaesthetic you lose neurons and since elderly people have fewer neurons, they lose proportionately more neurons.”Typically, patients recuperate fully from the operation but sometimes their cognitive function is impaired permanently. THE OPERATION WAS A SUCCESS BUT SADLY THE PATIENT LOST HER/HIS MARBLES. Professor MazeMaze said: “Elderly patients who go in for a hip or knee operation, for example, may be able to walk afterwards but not remember where they are walking to.”He believes this loss in brain functioning is induced by inflammation related to the surgery rather than the anaesthetic itself. An anaesthetic and surgery on patients may be the catalyst that pushes vulnerable patients over the edge into short-term memory loss and Alzheimer's disease.
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