2024-06-16 10:24:00
Some medical or surgical procedures involve giving the patient a general anesthesia. It’s not a trivial process, but given the fears some people have, especially about the brain, one study aims to be reassuring. This is detailed by Dr. Martin Ducret, a physician and journalist based in Doctor’s Daily.
French information: What exactly is general anesthesia?
Martin Duclet : The principle is to put the patient to sleep so that he does not lose consciousness and does not feel post-operative pain. To induce this artificial sleep state, anesthesiologists use drugs called hypnotics, which are injected intravenously or inhaled in the form of gases we breathe. And the higher the dose, the deeper the sleep state. There is also local anesthesia, which aims to put only a limb or part of the body to sleep by injecting an anesthetic product next to the nerve: for example, an epidural is used during childbirth.
**For many patients, general anesthesia raises concerns about negative effects on the brain, such as memory problems. So what?
**
A recent study challenges this preconception and confirms that general anesthesia is not dangerous to the brain. The Canadian study was published in English in the American Journal of Medicine Journal of the American Medical AssociationMore than 1,000 patients over 60 years old were recorded to have postoperative delirium, which means cognitive impairment within 3 days after anesthesia. But anesthesia does not cause this type of brain disease, regardless of the method used (general or local) or the dose administered.
“This study does confirm that as long as anesthesia is administered under good conditions, there is no danger to the brain in the short or long term. Professor Franck Verdonk, Director of the Department of Anesthesia and Resuscitation at Saint-Antoine and Tenon Hospital in Paris, explained. You should know that serious accidents during anesthesia are extremely rare, only one in 200,000 per year.
So, what is the cause of the cognitive impairment you mentioned?
The surgery itself can produce an immune response that can be harmful to the brain. This is especially true when the surgery is long and heavy, such as cardiac or orthopedic surgery, especially in older and frail patients. The pros and cons of surgery therefore need to be carefully weighed, as well as stimulating the patient’s brain after surgery. Therefore, it is crucial to have people around after the intervention.
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