Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Ask the Doctor: Anesthesia Can Have Bad Effects
DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Since my knee-replacement operation in 2009, I have questions that doctors shy away from answering.
Is there a possibility of temporary or lasting brain damage from an anesthetic?
For a week after my operation, I had difficulty reading and pressure in the front of my head.
Do painkillers damage the brain, like Tylenol No. 3 and Extra-Strength Tylenol?
How about sleeping pills?
I use a quarter of a pill every 10 days.
Do anesthetics affect memory? - S.B.
ANSWER: You ask good questions that deserve answers.
Mental confusion after general anesthesia, the kind that puts a person in deep sleep, happens to as many as 60% of those older than 65.
Most of these people recover in two days, but a few do not.
Even younger people, those between 18 and 60, show a decline in mental processing after a general anesthetic.
In three months, their cognition is back to normal.
However, a percentage of older people are still impaired after three months.
So, the answer to your question is: Yes, there can be brain damage after an anesthetic.
Memory can be affected.
Damage, in a few, can be permanent.
Because of this, some places advocate greater use of local anesthesia whenever possible - spinals and epidurals or nerve blocks.
Many hospitals are experimenting with low doses of anesthesia, not putting surgical patients into deep sleep, but putting them in a state that frees them from pain but allows them to answer questions.
This is something that will probably become more widespread in the coming years.
Your dose of sleeping-pill medicines ought not to affect your brain at all.
Tylenol No. 3 contains 300 mg of acetaminophen (not a big dose) and 30 mg of codeine.
Codeine is an opiod but a weak one.
Inordinate amounts could affect the brain.
The same can be said for Extra Strength Tylenol, which has 500 mg of acetaminophen.
Huge amounts could cloud the brain.
Doses printed on the instructions should not.
Narcotic painkillers, if used indiscriminately, can have deleterious effects on the brain.
The message should be much more important than the messenger but still people just don’t read or take the responsibility of independent thinking. It seems more important to know who said it, to be on the “right” side. I don’t like bullies. I don’t care for people telling others what they should and should not say or how to say it. That’s my right, my opinion. Don’t have any problem signing my name to this but for now I’ll just use…
To Not Me,