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Dementia Risk Doubled by Anesthesia, Surgery
Older patients who undergo anesthesia and surgery have a significantly increased risk for dementia, a large population-based study shows.
Investigators at Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taiwan found that patients older than 50 years who underwent anesthesia for the first time had nearly a 2-fold increased risk for dementia, mainly Alzheimer’s disease, compared with nonanesthetized patients.
The results of our nationwide population-based study suggest that patients who undergo anesthesia and surgery may be at increased risk of developing dementia. Anesthesia and surgery are inseparable in clinical settings. Thus, it is difficult to establish whether the increased risk of dementia development we observed was attributable to the anesthesia or the surgical process, or both.
The study was published online July 25 in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Although generally considered safe, there is growing concern that anesthetic drugs may have neurodegenerative complications.
Other potential mechanisms of anesthetic-induced neurotoxicity include calcium dysregulation.
The researchers note that postoperative confusion/decline is generally thought to be short-lived, with normal cognition returning within a few days. However, they add that in some cases, it can last for weeks.
Using data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research database, the researchers retrospectively examined whether the risk for dementia increased after surgery with anesthesia. They also looked at possible associations among age, mode of anesthesia, type of surgery, and risk for dementia.
Although anesthesia and surgery have provided immeasurable health and social benefits, our observations in this piece of research highlight the need for further studies to understand the association and causality between anesthesia with surgery and subsequent dementia.
Br J Psychiatry. Published online July 25, 2013. Abstract
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