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He had a stroke on the left side, his leg and arm...hospital said his carartoid artery was 85% blocked, hence the operation, he came thru just fine, just noticed small changes in his demeanor.
Anyone know more about these things?

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Yes, it is almost certainly true. Carotid surgery is pretty quick for this to occur, and not a long time under anesthesia. And you may see improvement, as the truth is even the trauma of undergoing any hospitalization and surgery can worsen things temporarily (or rarely permanently). I wouldn't worry for a while, and truth is there is little to be done if this does happen.

For many years doctors denied that some of the post op worsening of dementia was due to anesthesia. Many are now coming down to understanding there may be a connection, though I believe it is so far not proven to any degree of scientific certainty.
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My GFs father who suffered from ALZ had this operation at about 85. It not improve his ALZ.

Anesthesia takes longer to leave the body in the elderly. My Dad had a heart valve replaced and 3 bypasses at 65. At 67, he needed the same valve replaced and mentioned to the doctor he had lost memory with the first operation. Dr said he would with the second too.

I am surprised they operated on a 92 yr old who suffers from Dementia.
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I observed it in my dad, who recovered well physically from an operation for cancer at age 90. Mentally he was never the same, and it was dementia. We never noticed signs of dementia before the operation, only afterward. He didn't show any delirium. He chose to have the surgery himself.

Sometimes hard choices have to be made.
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My sweet husband had to have 2 operations within 3 months. When we were in for a checkup after the second surgery I told the Dr to give him back the brain cells they took out. He was totally changed. We got a neurologist and he said that the surgeries brought on the dementia 6-8 years earlier than it would have happened naturally. I wish we never had gotten the surgeries.
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fluffy1966 Jun 2023
My brother's Neurologist told us that any surgery for him is a very bad idea. He has 'some' memory issues at present but is able to live at a 55+ independent apartment. He has a painful shoulder that should have been addressed years ago, but Neurologist most definitively said that the anesthesia would almost certainly worsen/advance the memory loss he currently has. In another situation, a friend who was functioning just fine "mentally", fell and broke a hip which naturally necessitated a surgery to set a 'pin' in the broken hip. The spouse has shared that since the surgery, her doctor has diagosed beginning stage dementia. Avoid surgeries! Sometimes they cannot be avoided (like that broken hip) but any anesthesia carries with it great risk of worsening memory disorders.
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Anesthesia as well as a stay in the Hospital can worsen dementia symptoms.
There may be a return to his "baseline" of pre-surgery status or there may be little or no improvement.
Hope for the best, expect the worse is how I handled hospitalization with my Husband.
And I hate being a "downer" on this but... I would probably not do any more further aggressive treatments at this point.
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Any type of of medicine or IV that causes sleepiness can make dementia or Alzheimer's worse. It has a different affect on the elderly. Is the procedure a life or death situation, is it an absolute must for him to go under. Sometimes at this age you have to outweigh quality of life as opposed to treatment. How strong is your husband?
How bad is the Alzheimer's?
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Happened to my mom... she had been declining for years but after a surgery to remove a kidney, she was a completely different person.

The surgery was kind of botched because her lungs weren't getting enough oxygen and she suffered the consequences.

she would last 18 months after.
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I do not know about anesthesia's effects on dementia and alzheimer's- however
I DO know about post-surgical delirium because my 95 year old mother experienced this after an emergency surgery that lasted 5 hours.

Immediately after the surgery, she was totally confused - didn't know where she was, what year it was, why she was where she was, and at some points even who even I was. This wasn't the woman who I and her neighbors interacted with just 2 days prior. Even at her age, she never showed ANY signs of mental confusion, no memory losses (except for the usual that happen as one ages), no signs of dementia or alzeheimers - something either I (who spoke with her every day and helped her at her townhome at least 2x week), and her neighbors who she interacted with every single day.

But, the doctors were quick to note on her charts that she had dementia. I told them, I informed them, that her GP and all her other specialists have not ever seen evidence of such nor is there anything in ANY of her medical charts that would indicate this. I showed them videos of her talking and interacting with me and her neighbors - nothing would convince them otherwise. They said 'dementia'. This diagnosis then followed her to rehab where they treated her differently than a regular patient.

Her post-surgical delirium was really bad for the first week and then it gradually, oh so gradually, started lessening. It took nearly 3 weeks for it to dissipate, 3 really slow and long weeks. But the scary part was that I didn't know if this condition was temporary or if it would become permanent.

I was angry, frustrated, exasperated and feeling powerless to be able to effect any change because the medical 'professionals' kept ignoring what I was saying.
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yes.. MIL was getting grandmal strokes.
MIL had the same issue. Right side of her neck.. plaque built up so blood flow was constricted going to her brain.. they put a stint in.
Blood flow to brain iOS important, sometimes these ole arteries get clogged..
my aunt went to ER.. the ER DOCTOR told me..
“Every time she comes here.. a little bit of her will stay behind.”

in other words , yes anesthesia will take a bit out of you.. and in older patients like my aunt, a bit will stay behind😔
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Anesthesia may cause everybody to act a little "off" until the medications clear from their bodies. Unless he had some clots break off from the occlusion, he should recover to be himself. Since he has had a stroke in the past, any longer term behavior changes are probably stroke-related. Ask his neurologist to follow-up on changed you have noticed.
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