The fear is common that general anesthesia leads to a deterioration in memory and attention, as well as to a general decrease in mental abilities. We decided to check if such fear is justified.

Many Internet users complain about the deterioration of cognitive functions after anesthesia. Some note that their memory W wors on so that they forget the names of friends, and the ability to concentrate Falled. Others say that they became suffer Dressing in memory. Third They are accused Anesthesia "in a deterioration in the ability to teach and memorize new information, in reducing concentration, partial speech disorder, which negatively affects the quality of life of a person and his professional activity." At the same time, sites of medical institutions called deterioration of cognitive abilities after anesthesia mythand themselves Anesthesiologists They say that all unwanted phenomena pass for several days or weeks.

In everyday life, anesthesia often means any type of anesthesia during medical interventions. However, from a scientific point of view anesthesia - This is an artificial reversible state of oppression of the central nervous system, in which there is a dream, loss of consciousness, relaxation of skeletal muscles, a decrease or disconnection of some reflexes, and pain sensitivity disappears. The main difference from other types of anesthesia, for example, and local anesthesia, is that a person is sleeping under anesthesia, and with other types remains conscious. Local anesthesia is also called regional, it is used mainly during the treatment and implantation of tooth or laser vision correction, as well as for pain relief during childbirth and the operation of the Caesarean section. However, the patient is usually has The choice of which anesthesia will be used. So, dental treatment Maybe It is also carried out under anesthesia, especially when it comes to a child or a person who is panickically afraid of dentists, and when removing appendicitis Maybe to be, on the contrary, Applied and regional anesthesia.

At the same time, when they talk about a decrease in cognitive abilities after surgery, they usually mean only anesthesia. And although in the definition of general anesthesia stipulates that its effect on the nervous system is completely reversible, numerous Animal research Showthat anesthesia negatively affects the body. For example, drugs for inhalation anesthesia Call In elderly mice, symptoms similar to Alzheimer's disease, and even with low concentrations of anesthetics is happening The death of neurons in newborn primates.

However, studies in public did not give such a clear result. In 2016, the Oxford project to study memory and aging Published The data of their observation of elderly patients (average age - 72 years), which have undergone anesthesia over the past four years. It turned out that predisposing factors to a more rapid decrease in cognitive abilities were age, male gender, low results of pre -conducted tests, genetic characteristics (the presence of ɛ4 allele ɛ4 apolipoprotein e, which Related With an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease), as well as diseases affecting the cognitive sphere and already diagnosed at the time of anesthesia. Those elderly people who have memory and cognitive functions were normal before the operation, the negative impact of anesthesia did not affect.

Study 2016, carried out in Denmark, also did not show a significant difference in cognitive abilities in the pairs of twins of the average (not younger than 45 and not older than 70 years) and the elderly (from 70 years), one of which underwent an anti -aircraft operation. Researchers came to the conclusion that "preoperative cognitive functioning and related diseases were more important for cognitive state in middle and old age than surgery and anesthesia." Monozygot twins (that is, developing from the same zygote, which became the result of the merger of one egg and one spermatozoa) have a* completely identical set of genes, so research with the involvement of such couples gives a definite answer to the question of what is predetermined by genes and what is the result of any effects during life.

In 2018, scientists from the University of Wisconsin - Madison (USA) Sicked A group of 964 volunteers, whose average age was 54 years old, and with the help of tests appreciated their memory and executive function, that is, the ability to plan events and focus on the facility. Four years later, when 312 participants were postponed this or that operation under anesthesia, scientists again asked all their tests. It turned out that those who during this time have been under anesthesia were faced with a decrease in direct memory by one point with a possible maximum result of a test of 30 points. However, such a dynamics of results cannot be called significant - Dr. Kirk Hogan, one of the researchers, surethat the changes are "asymptomatic and below the threshold of awareness of the person himself."

Dr. Beverly Orser, professor of physiology and anesthesia at Toronto University, Turns Attention to the complexity of such studies, because in addition to anesthesia, a person is subjected to a number of other influences. For example, when it breaks the leg, the body emits inflammatory chemicals - cytokines that enter the brain and worsen its performance. If, after such an injury, a person needs surgical intervention under anesthesia, it will be impossible to determine whether anesthesia, initial injury or surgery and a long stay in the hospital after it are to blame for a further decrease in cognitive abilities. The position of the Orser correlates well described Syndrome of the condition after intensive therapy (PICS)-it can occur in patients after a long stay in the hospital due to serious diseases. The symptoms of this syndrome include not only physical changes (muscle weakness, sleep problems, difficulty breathing), but also cognitive (forgetfulness, reduction of attentiveness, difficulties with concentration and worsening the ability to plan).

For cognitive violations arising after surgery under anesthesia, there is even their own Name - postoperative cognitive dysfunction (PKD), from 10% to 30% of patients over 65 years old can To test her symptoms even six months after surgery. But a unambiguous answer is to blame for such changes in the elderly, drugs themselves for anesthesia or a subsequent inflammatory response to the operation, scientists have no.

There is no clear understanding whether such substances affect the children's brain. Some research Showthat children who before the age of three have repeatedly exposed to anesthesia, more inclined To the future cognitive deficiency, problems with memory and speech, as well as the development of attention deficiency and hyperactivity deficiency (ADHD). Other Turn Attention to the fact that children who need several operations at such a young age can already be predisposed to the problems of neur development due to injuries or diseases from which they suffer.

Thus, on the one hand, science knows cases of cognitive deterioration after anesthesia that occur in both patients and elderly people. If we are talking about a person under 65 years of age without neuronaurus, then the risk of encountering a violation of cognitive functions after anesthesia is minimal. On the other hand, no study confirms that such changes occur due to drugs that introduce patients into an anesthesia. Researchers pay attention to the fact that, in addition to anesthesia itself, to memory and attentiveness can affect both being in the hospital and the disease, because of which the operation was needed, as well as special inflammatory agents-cytokines that damage brain cells.

*Science It is known Only two cases of the birth of the so -called semi -identical twins, when two sperm fertilizes are fertilized by one egg. In these cases, children had 100% genetic information from the mother and 50% or 78% of the father. The likelihood of normal development of pregnancy in this case is so small that in numerous studies of genetic information, twins were not found anymore.

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