Surgery in Older Adults Does Not Up Risk for Alzheimer Disease

A study published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia found that older adults who undergo surgery with general anesthesia are not at a higher risk of Alzheimer disease, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers evaluated brain amyloid-ß (Aß) burden among older subjects 70 to 97 years old who underwent surgery with general anesthesia either after age 40 or within 20 years of neuroimaging. Irrespective of the definition used for measuring exposure, there were no significant associations between exposure and either global Aß with Pittsburgh compound B positron emission tomography (PET) or brain glucose metabolism with 18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET. The researchers did associate exposure to surgery/general anesthesia with an elevated likelihood of abnormal cortical thinning in those exposed after 40 and among those exposed in the prior two decades. "This finding suggests that the modest cortical thinning associated with surgery/general anesthesia is not related to Alzheimer disease pathology, but rather is caused by other processes," the investigators concluded.