SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/05/will-surgery-sap-your-brain-power
Many of us can recount a similar story about a friend, colleague, or loved one—usually elderly—whose mental condition deteriorated after a visit to an operating room. "The comment that 'So-and-so has never been the same after the operation' is pervasive," says anesthesiologist Roderic Eckenhoff of the University of Pennsylvania.
Often, surgical patients are beset by postoperative delirium—delusions, confusion, and hallucinations—but that usually fades quickly. Other people develop what has been dubbed postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), suffering problems with memory, attention, and concentration that can last months or even a lifetime. POCD not only disrupts patients' lives, but may also augur worse to come. According to a 2008 study, people who have POCD 3 months after they leave the hospital are nearly twice as likely to die within a year as are surgical patients who report no mental setbacks. With the ballooning senior population needing more surgeries, "this is going to become an epidemic," says anesthesiologist Mervyn Maze of the University of California, San Francisco.
What causes POCD, what makes some patients susceptible, and how best to protect their faculties are unclear. And some scientists still question whether surgery is to blame. Two prominent anesthesiologists called the idea that operations cause persistent mental declines a fallacy.
Yet more researchers and doctors are awakening to surgery's risks for the brain. Last year, the American Society of Anesthesiologists launched a Brain Health Initiative to spur research into the factors that make people vulnerable and to pinpoint preventive measures. Scientists now have a prime suspect for the cause of POCD: inflammation of the brain. And clinical trials are testing interventions that include drugs, changes in operating room procedures, and mental training. "I believe we are on the verge of some diagnostic and therapeutic advances," says Joseph Mathew, a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday June 01 2017, @07:04PM (5 children)
Probably something simple during or after surgery will go a long way to reducing brain inflammation.
The inflammation is probably a side effect of some drugs they are already giving during surgery, more so than some sort of reaction to being cut open. People with major wounds not requiring total sedation don't seem to have this problem.
That Anesthesiologists are up in arms about the possibility of mental decline (but not the surgeons themselves) seems sort of telling.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 01 2017, @07:08PM
Yeah it's about time we replace every anesthesiologist with AI automation. Goddamn idiot buggy whippers need to be starving to death behind the hospitals right now. So fucking useless those knob polishers are.
(Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Thursday June 01 2017, @08:00PM (2 children)
i recommend marijuana...
seriously, supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties...
spray the brain down with some CBD oil or sumpin...
...or smoke a fatty while getting your brain dissected...
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday June 01 2017, @08:45PM (1 child)
These things causes neuro cells to die.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 01 2017, @10:33PM
Only the weak ones; eliminate them and make the brain a leaner meaner machine.
Works for corporations, no?
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Informative) by purple_cobra on Friday June 02 2017, @02:04PM
On the surface, aspirin is a good idea, but it's an anticoagulant so could potentially exacerbate post-op bleeding. Not sure if steroids act as an anticoagulant but they would help reduce inflammation, though they bring their own potential side effects and interactions.