General anesthesia for the elderly boosts the risks of dementia by more than a third, according to a study by French doctors.
Researchers led by Francois Sztark at the University of Bordeaux in southwestern France analyzed data from a long-term study into cognitive decline covering 9,300 elderly people in three French cities.
The volunteers — average age 75 — were interviewed when they were recruited into the study and then two, four, seven and 10 years afterwards.
Photo: Reuters
照片:路透
The data, which was released on May 31, showed a link between the onset of dementia and a general anesthetic that had been administered two or three years before.
Those who had received general anesthesia were 35 percent likelier to develop dementia symptoms by the next follow-up interview compared with counterparts who had not had general anesthetic.
Previous work has already highlighted a condition called post-operative cognitive dysfunction, or POCD, in which an elderly patient who undergoes major surgery also goes into mental decline relatively soon afterward.
The reasons for this, though, are unclear. Some experiments suggest various anesthetics inflame neural tissues, causing protein plaques and tangles to develop that are precursors of Alzheimer’s disease.
(AFP)
年長者全身麻醉將增加失智風險逾三分之一,法國醫師所做的研究指出。
法國西南部波爾多大學專家史塔克領導的研究人員,對一項涵蓋法國三個城市、九千三百名年長者有關認知衰退的長期研究進行分析。
這些平均年齡七十五歲的志願者在他們被招募參與研究時接受訪談,二、四、七和十年後再次受訪。
這份五月三十一日公布的資料顯示,失智的發病與兩到三年前所做的全身麻醉有關。
那些接受全身麻醉者到下次的後續訪談前,相較於沒有接受全身麻醉者,出現失智症狀的機率多出百分之三十五。
此前的研究成果已凸顯稱為「手術後認知功能障礙」或POCD的症狀,即經歷重大手術的年長病患,此後相對快速地也進入心智衰退狀態。
儘管箇中原因不明,但若干實驗顯示,許多麻醉劑會讓神經組織發炎,引發蛋白斑塊與糾結的生成,這些是阿茲海默氏症的前兆。
(法新社/翻譯:魏國金)
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