Try to Avoid Anesthesia Gas on Elderly Patients
Dr. Paul Kennedy is an anesthesiologist practicing in Austin, TX. Dr. Kennedy ensures the safety of patients who are about to undergo surgery. Anesthesiologists specialize in general anesthesia, which will (put the patient to sleep), sedation, which will calm the patient or make him or her unaware of the situation, and... more
As a practicing anesthesiologist for 30 years, I have seen the science show that anesthesia gas is actually irreversibly harmful to the elderly brain. Most of my colleagues don’t think twice to put an elderly patient to sleep using inhalational gas to provide general anesthesia. But for at least a decade, literature has shown that the elderly, especially those with dementia, don’t recover as well as the more youthful patients, especially when the surgery is longer than 1 hour. If the surgery is below the belly button, I will strongly consider a spinal or epidural for my elderly patient.
If that’s not possible, I will induce general anesthesia without the use of gas, but instead use only iv medicines such as Propofol, Versed, Fentanyl, etc. This technique provides complete unconsciousness without using inhalation agents which have been shown to worsen dementia or Alzheimer’s irreversibly. The technique is known as TIVA (total intravenous anesthesia) and family members should ask if the anesthesiologist is comfortable doing this technique.
Paul Kennedy, MD
