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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Impact of anesthesia on the cognitive functioning of the elderly | | Author(s) | Karen Ritchie, Catherine Polge, Guilhem de Roquefeuil |
| Journal title | International Psychogeriatrics, vol 9, no 3, September 1997 |
| Pages | pp 309-326 |
| Keywords | Surgery ; Drugs ; Cognitive processes ; Cognitive impairment ; Dementia ; Correlation ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Exposure to general anaesthesia has been suggested as a possible cause of long-term cognitive impairment in older people. This study reviews the literature, in order to describe post-operative cognitive impairment in older populations, to determine the extent to which this may be attributed to anaesthetic agents, and to consider evidence of a causal relationship between anaesthesia and onset of senile dementia. A systematic literature search was conducted using five bibliographical databases (PASCAL, Medline, Excerpta Medica, Psychological Abstracts, and Science Citation Index). Significant cognitive dysfunction was found to be common in older people three days after surgery, but reports of longer-term impairment are inconsistent due to the heterogeneity of the procedures used and the populations targeted in such studies. Incidence rates vary widely according to type of surgery, suggesting that factors other than anaesthesia explain a significant proportion of the observed variance. Anaesthesia appears to be associated with longer-term cognitive disorder and the acceleration of senile dementia, but only in a small number of cases, suggesting the existence of other interacting aetiological factors. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-981001003 A |
| Classmark | LKA: LLD: DA: E4: EA: 49: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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