“the problem of post-surgical cognitive impairment”
My dad had quadruple heart bypass surgery in his late 60s. It really affected his cognitive ability.
Mom had a colon section around age 80 and she suffered bad cognitive impairment post-surgery. Her dementia had started before that, but greatly accelerated afterwards.
I think the medical profession quite a few years ago first started noticing cognitive decline in heart patients after long surgeries. It wasn’t clear then what the issue was; some thought it was because of trauma to the heart itself. It slowly became clear that any procedure in which the patient was anesthetized for a long period had the same effect.
I’m optimistic that the developments in this article prove useful.