affect of anesthesia?

Three d

my wife had what we thought was middle stage Alzheimer when she fell and broke her upper femur. she had surgery and was in rehab for 20 days then brought home. she steadily declined and her doc recommended hospice. she was dead in 2 weeks. my question is does the anesthesia have a profound affect on Alzheimer patients?

DrinaJGB

I am so sorry you have lost your wife. Broken hips are a leading cause of death in the elderly and especially so the ones with dementia.

Four years ago my DH fell and broke the same area as your wife. He came home after weeks, but was confused even more than before the fracture. When I took him to see his neurologist who was told of the surgery, the doctor stopped and specifically asked how the surgery had affected him.

  I told him that my DH was more confused and had taken a long time to recover. The neurologist told us that any type of anesthesia will set a patient with dementia back a very long time. That was indeed our own personal experience.

harshedbuzz

Three d-

Please accept my sympathy on the loss of your dear wife.

My BIL, who was an ER doc, says that hip fractures in the elderly are something of a chicken or the egg scenario. Family tends to see the rapid decline after the trauma of the break and surgery to repair, but he tended to feel the decline occurred prior and caused the fall in many cases.

My aunt suffered a fall and hip/wrist fracture in what we thought were the earlier middle stages of mixed (VD and ALZ) dementia. She had surgery to repair and basically went from a stage 3-4 to stage 7 during her initial hospitalization. She passed within a few months of the fracture. 

HB

Marie58

Three d,  I'm so sorry that your DW passed. May God grant you peace and comfort in the days and weeks ahead.

extex

My wife broke her ankle in 2013 which required two surgeries to fix.  She lost a significant amount of ability for a few months In 2018 she fell and broke her hip.  They put it back together with screws then she came home after five weeks rehab.  Another major dive resulted into stage 7.  Now, over almost three years later, she’s still shuffling along like the energizer bunny.  I had her evaluated for hospice care last week and she flunked.  Too mobile and not loosing weight.

Mike&BrendaTX

Three d,

What I have heard is that anesthesia doesn't often cause dementia, but for those who are vulnerable to it, it speeds up the process.

My late wife Brenda was operated on for cancer in 2007, and when she came home from the hospital, it was like flipping a light switch: the obvious symptoms started.  Asking the same questions over and over, etc.  It seemed to me at the time it caused the dementia.  But...

In retrospect, I see that she had exhibited the more subtle symptoms as early as 2004 at age 59.  The stage 2 symptoms of being unaware of her surroundings caused her to total two vehicles in 10 mph accidents when she had never even had a ticket in her life, much less an accident.

From 2007, it was a long downhill battle all the way through the last part of stage 7.  She passed away in January, 2020.  I still feel the anesthesia sped things up, but didn't cause the dementia (she had 6 close family members with Alzheimers, so there was a strong genetic factor).  But there was no doubt either the anesthesia or the trauma of the operation had a significant effect.

extex,

You might try another hospice.  My wife was still very mobile at the start of stage 7 and she was accepted with no problems.  Hospice is a godsend, so I would try again.

Mike

extex

Thanks Mike.  I think I will do that.  The nurse who evaluated her asked if I wanted to have palliative care so they could track her progress.  I told her to go ahead so don’t know if that sticks me with this hospice organization or not.I haven’t signed anything.  I’ll call and find out tomorrow.

Iris L.

When I was in medical school, we were warned that the fatality rate for hip fracture was twenty-five percent.  This is for all patients, with or without dementia.  Most older adults are already medically compromised in some way, and hip fractures result in many complications.  By hip fracture I include femur fracture.

Iris