There are two things you need to know.The first is that the protein amyloid-beta (short form A-beta) builds up in the brain and this is thought to be the cause of Alzheimers effect.The second thing is that it has now been shown that using anesthetics in surgery causes a buildup of A-beta in the brain.
The specific anesthetic under study is the most commonly used one called soflurane. In the study, it was quite clear that experiments in petri dishes were being replicated in the
alzheimer’s-mouse population.Indeed increased brain cell death was quite pronounced in mice that had not been treated beforehand with clioquinol (a drug that reduces the producton of A-beta).
The problem with this of course is that one study doesn’t make a trend or create a change in normal hospital practice because… well, it’s only one study.
So there’s a lot more work to be done on this.
It should also be pointed out that the mice were killed fairly shortly (in stages to 12 hours) after the exposure and that there were no long term mice past that 12 hours.There are no long term tests on humans in this regard either.
In practical terms, it is commonly known that there is a short term condition in some patients (after surgery) that resembles dementia.This passes in most people with time.
Whether it will pass with seniors or those with Alzheimers dementia seems to be the question.But in practical terms, it would seem to make common sense (and one more reason) for seniors to avoid elective surgery requiring anesthetics whenever possible,