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Simple pharmaceutical interventions could help older brains cope with memory impairment and recovery after surgery, new studies in mice suggest. The first paper examined the problem of post-surgical cognitive impairment. Immediately after surgery, cognitive impairment is common, but studies have found that 10% of adults over the age of 60 still have deficits to learning, memory and executive function three months after surgery, Rudolph said. Propofol is a common anesthetic agent that has shown promise in other mouse studies for improving cognition in Alzheimer's disease models, though in high doses it may harm the brain, Rudolph said. To study whether...

As Joan Rivers’ prognosis grows more dire each day, RadarOnline.com has learned that medical investigators are growing ever closer to uncovering the real reason the healthy 81-year-old was sent spiraling into a coma after a standard medical procedure. And according to insiders, they believe the culprit could be a fatal dose of Propofol — the same drug that killed Michael Jackson after he was administered a lethal dose. “Certainly, they suspect the anesthesia was the issue, based on conversations between the staff and city medics,” a source close to the investigation told Radar.

The compound Propofol has long been the most popular anesthetic drug in the United States, with some 50 million doses administered in the country’s hospitals and other medical facilities every year. But plans by several US states to begin using the drug for executions have drawn wide concern in the European Union, where near 90 percent of the Propofol supplied to America is manufactured. Now, out of concern that EU regulations will result in severe restrictions on the drug’s export, the German pharmaceutical firm that is the top manufacturer of Propofol, as well as advocacy groups in the US, are...

Michael Jackson died because of his own bad choices involving the drug that killed him and the doctor who provided it, not because of anything done by AEG Live, a lawyer for the producer of Jackson’s comeback concerts told jurors Wednesday. Delivering his closing argument in the long-running negligence case by Jackson’s family, defense attorney Marvin Putnam said the secretive singer never told the producers that he was using the hospital anesthetic propofol to overcome his chronic insomnia. If AEG Live had known, it would have pulled the plug on the planned tour, the lawyer said. …

Today in Los Angeles charges were presented against Michael Jackson’s doctor. Charges of involuntary manslaughter by Dr. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist who had acted “unlawfully and without malice” in bringing about Mr. Jackson by administrating a powerful sedative in order to help Mr. Jackson sleep.

POLICE and federal agents have swooped on the Las Vegas home of Michael Jackson's doctor as speculation about possible criminal charges in the case intensified. CNN reported on Monday police believe Conrad Murray gave Jackson a lethal dose of an anesthetic, Propofol, which is marketed under the trade name Diprivan. Propofol is used in hospitals to induce unconsciousness in patients ahead of major surgery. Experts say the drug should only be administered by a trained anaesthesiologist under strict monitoring conditions. TMZ.com reported that Dr Murray had told police in an interview he gave Jackson Propofol via an intravenous drip.