/p>surgical operations with anesthesia generateshe can produce postoperative trauma. In fact, almost half of the people who go through the operating room with certain anesthesia suffer episodes of delirium, alterations in memory or thought, loss of daily life skills, dependence, generalized pain, sleep disturbances and, above all, , cognitive decline that, in case of suffering it previously, it is usually aggravated with the intervention, as has been warned Jose Ramon Martinez Calvogeriatrician, researcher and coordinator of the Geriatrics service of the Lucus Augusti de Lugo University Hospital (HULA) during his speech at the to and the 29th of the Galician Society of Xerontology and Xeriatrics (SGXX).
These episodes, called “postoperative cognitive dysfunction” (DCPO) encompass a broad set of disorders -mainly neurological- that can occur in all people, between 5 and 50% of cases in general and but that have a especially prevalent in the case of the elderlyfrom 20 to 90%, since the greatest risk factor is advanced age.
In this sense, Dr. Martínez Calvo indicates that “It is a disorder that increases in proportion and complications the greater the age of the person operated” and that depends on many circumstances before and after surgical operations. “Symptoms and side effects are mostly related to the type of anesthesia used and the physical, mental and mental situation of the patient and range from mild, transient delirium to permanent cognitive impairment”.
Regarding the origin, this specialist signs that “there is no clear or defined cause for the DCPO to occur. Today we have full proof that these risks and side effects occur, but we do not know the causes, the process, the affectation or how they are produced and why they are generated in some people and not in others.. And he warns that these disorders “They occur only in the case of general anesthesia and their involvement is greater and more likely when the person previously has a disease related to the cognitive decline”.
Among the possible causes of DCPO, Dr. Martínez Calvo points out that “When the person ages, although almost all their organic and basic systems for the development of the basic functions of life continue to function, the reserve of the capacity to function at full capacity is usually reduced and, above all, to compensate for the physiological stress”. For this reason, and taking into account that, for the elderly, a surgical intervention usually always represents stress, “There is an increase in postoperative complications in the elderly”.
This disorder results more frequent in the postoperative period of cardiovascular surgery and once ten days have elapsed since the operation, and that certain risk factors influence its appearance: preoperative history such as a low intellectual level, alcoholism, smoking and nutritional deficiencies or a bad diet. The study and specification of the risk factors are important because some of them can be modified to different degrees in the preoperative or postoperative period, with which they could be avoided to a greater or lesser extent.
Nevertheless, the prevalence of DCPO may be reduced over time. Thus, three months after the operation, the DCPO could decrease to 10%; at six months at 5% and at twelve months, up to 1%. Curiously, the surgery with which DCPO decreases the least is cardiac surgery, since in most cases, and after three months, it could still vary between 30% and 80% of involvement.
In this sense, the coordinator of the Geriatrics service affirms that it remains “a long way to go” and trusts that the studies and investigations, if they are not suppressed with the cuts, will be able to achieve aNo intervention protocol to avoid the complications of DCPO.