Postoperative Cognitive Issues Common Among Middle-Aged Surgery Patients

THURSDAY, Oct. 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Subjective cognitive and short-term memory impairment within 12 months of cardiac or noncardiac surgery are common among middle-aged surgery patients, according to a study published online Oct. 10 in JAMA Network Open.

Lei Yang, M.D., from Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, and colleagues used data from the China Surgery and Anesthesia Cohort to assess surgical patients (40 to 65 years) from two medical centers (July 15, 2020, to March 31, 2023, with one year of follow-up) to assess the incidence, trajectory, and risk factors for subjective cognitive and short-term memory impairment after surgery.

The researchers found that the 8-Item Informant Interview to Differentiate Aging and Dementia (AD8) abnormality incidence rates after noncardiac surgery increased from 2.2 percent at seven days to 17.1 percent at six months after surgery before decreasing. For the 3-Word Recall Test, abnormality incidence rates followed a U-shaped pattern, with the most pronounced incidence rates seen at seven days (38.9 percent) and 12 months (49.0 percent). For both tests, similar patterns were seen among cardiac surgery patients. Among noncardiac surgery patients, preoperative sleep disturbances (odds ratios, 4.04 and 4.54), intensive care unit stay of two days or longer (odds ratios, 2.43 and 3.07), and preoperative depressive symptoms (odds ratios, 1.76 and 2.23) were the top risk factors for the aggressively deteriorative AD8 trajectory and for AD8 abnormality, respectively, after surgery.

"These findings highlight the potential for preoperative psychological interventions and optimized perioperative management to prevent postoperative cognitive impairment," the authors write.

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