Overall, the team found that participants who had surgery were more likely to have more abnormal memory and issues with executive function, although the memory changes were fairly small. This percentage was significantly higher than the 56 of 556 participants who developed abnormal memory and did not have surgery. In total, 21 of the 114 people who underwent surgery developed abnormal memory by the end of the study. Of the 670 participants with normal memory at the start of the study, those who had surgery during the study period were nearly twice as likely to show signs of “abnormal memory” than those who did not have surgery. The participants underwent two cognitive assessment tests over four years to see if one group was more likely to experience a cognitive decline or impaired memory. In this study, researchers examined 964 participants with a mean age of 54 from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP).

Doctors still don’t understand anesthesia’s mechanism and how it works to help render patients unconscious. Researchers have already found evidence that anesthesia can increase risk of cognitive decline in the elderly, but a new study published today in the medical journal Anaesthesia found evidence it may also affect people in middle age.Īnesthesia remains a mystery for doctors in many ways, despite its widespread use for over a century. You might expect to get temporarily knocked out by general anesthesia during surgery, but new research has found that it may have lasting impacts on memory and cognition.

Memory master and anesthesia