Anaesthesia speeds up Alzheimer’s
The connection between anaesthesia and Alzheimer’s disease is not new; however, a recent study found the link is becoming stronger, with experts suggesting anaesthetic drugs are “accelerating” the disease in people who have not yet been diagnosed.
The connection between anaesthesia and Alzheimer’s disease is not new; however, a recent study found the link is becoming stronger, with experts suggesting anaesthetic drugs are “accelerating” the disease in people who have not yet been diagnosed.
The study warned elderly people and caregivers to think carefully about whether they, or their loved ones, need an operation requiring anaesthesia.
Various studies are showing between 30 to 50% of patients experience “woolly” thinking for a week after surgery, falling to 10 to 15% after three months.
Director of anaesthesia at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, David Scott, told a medical conference in Hong Kong there is preliminary evidence that “the rate of conversion to Alzheimer’s disease is increased after anaesthetics and surgery in elderly patients”.
Although the evidence was not conclusive by itself, Associate Professor Scott told doctors attending the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists annual conference, suspicions of a link had been strengthened by new findings based on rats that some commonly used anaesthetic drugs sped up the degeneration of nerve cells characteristic of Alzheimer’s.
Professor Scott, who said people are “frightened about getting dementia”, suggested anaesthetics are not causing Alzheimer’s diseases, but it more than likely speeding up the process.
