Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 8/24/2007

Question
Hi. My mom has had some bad reactions to anesthesia in the past. She is now in bad need of knee surgery but is afraid to have anesthesia again. She is refusing surgery.
My question is. . .If she is noticing a loss of memory and memory-related problems lately, will anesthesia make this worse? Does anesthesia affect the brain at all? Can it?
THANK YOU so much for any information you can give me.

Answer
What do you mean by a bad reaction? In general, anesthesia in itself does not cuase memory related problems. However, chronic illness, etc can lead to that. Knee surgery should not do that and depending on what type of kee surgery, they might be able to do it under a regional anesthetic. Talk with your surgeon and anesthesiologist about that.

Ronald Levy, MD
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston