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Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on January 18, 2009
Age and Ageing 2009 38(2):147-150; doi:10.1093/ageing/afn289
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Commentary

Cognitive dysfunction after surgery and anaesthesia: what can we tell the grandparents?

D. Gwyn Seymour1 and Andrew M. Severn2

1 Medicine for the Elderly, University of Aberdeen, Foresterhill Health Centre, Westburn Road, Aberdeen AB25 2AY, UK
2 University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, Royal Lancaster Infirmary, Lancaster LA1 4RP, UK

Address correspondence to: Andrew M. Severn. Tel: +44 (0)1524 583517; Email: andrew.severn{at}mbht.nhs.uk

‘Grandpa was never the same after his operation!’. This statement describes a myriad of possible clinical difficulties that can afflict older people after hospitalisation for major surgery. We summarise the evidence pertaining to the phenomenon of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction, a condition defined as an abnomality on neuropsychological testing, which is said to afflict up to 14% of over 70 years olds undergoing elective surgery. So far none of the expected surgical, anaesthetic and environmental risk factors have been convincingly demonstrated to be reponsible for this observed deterioration. While recognising the high incidence of the condition as an neuropsychological entity we accept that it is difficult to translate this into a reliable estimate of clinical risk for the individual patient.

Keywords: anaesthesia, cognitive, dysfunction, surgery

Received 16 April 2008; accepted in revised form 21 November 2008.


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