Cognitive function after surgery with regional or general anesthesia.

Dapperduane

Moderator
Staff member
Aug 8, 2019
59
1
8
Gilbert, AZ
In the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia, a study showed that there is cognitive dysfunction in both regional only and general anesthesia patients, albeit the GA group had memory decline as well. it seems intuitive that the general anesthesia group would suffer cognitive dysfunction and memory formation problems because the anesthetics are lingering in fat and muscle depots throughout the body and I imagine they could still have some effects to the neurons in the brain. I was surprised that the regional anesthesia group had signficant dysfunction. Could this be because small amounts of a local anesthetic enters the bloodstream and central nervous system or could it be related to the inflammatory factors from the surgery? I wonder if they will conduct studies that will compare regional anesthesia without surgery versus regional anesthesia with surgery.