What effect does anesthesia have on dementia patients?

Answer 1

Giving anesthesia without a brain monitor is like letting your anesthesiologist play Russian roulette with your brain.

Granted most people survive their anesthesia, but that is the 20th century standard of care.

Waking up with the same number of mental 'marbles' one started with is the 21st century standard of care.

The only way to avoid the nefarious practice of routine anesthesia over medication (for fear of under medication) is to use your right to insist on a brain monitor if you are going under anesthesia for surgery.

Brain monitoring is a non-negotiable request. If your anesthesiologist tells you 'no,' ask for another anesthesiologist or go to another hospital where this monitor will be used.

75% of US hospitals have this device, but it is only used 25% of the time. Only you have to live with the long-term consequences of your short-term anesthesia care.

What is known is that up to 40% of patients leaving the hospital go home with brain fog (postoperative cognitive dysfunction or POCD) that can last as long as 1 year.

We also know that one patient dies from anesthesia over medication EVERY day.

Until widespread brain monitoring becomes the standard of care, the true incidence of the 'living death' of dementia will not be known.