“Does anesthesia cause memory loss?”

General anesthesia or even sedation can cause memory loss, particularly in older patients. Most often, the effect is temporary. Other times it becomes more noticeable although it may be present prior to surgery. As you might imagine, it is a very difficult thing to study. In addition, standard preoperative consents and discussions do not necessarily bring out this point as well as it should

There are no studies that prove that Anesthesia causes permanent memory loss however there are multiple factors that can effect memory under anesthesia like type of surgery,duration of surgery,preexisting diseases and age of patients.If you have specific concerns you can consult your surgeon and ask them that you would like to talk to the anesthesiologists involved in his care and get more answer specific to his case.

One of the most commonly administered drug types is benzodiazepines, the most frequently used is midazolam. Although midazolam has a short plasma half-life, clinical studies have shown that the drug's pharmacodynamics differ greatly from its pharmacokinetics. What this means is that even though the drug may be 99% dissipated from the bloodstream 24 hours after administration, its effects on amnesia, and critical thinking skills can persist for more than a week, especially in elderly patients. If this memory problem persists for more than a month, then the patient should be tested for cerebrovascular disease, and the anesthesia record should be reviewed for any evidence of profound intraoperative hypotension as sources
of transient cerebral ischemia.