Older adults undergoing surgery with anesthesia may experience mild cognitive impairment afterward, according to a prospective study published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.
The study of 1,819 people, with a median follow-up of 5.1 years after exposure to anesthesia, and four cognitive assessments found a subtle decline in cognitive z scores that were 0.2 standard deviations more than expected from aging alone (Br J Anaesth 2018;121[2]:398-405).
“I was surprised by this finding