Anesthesia can leave patients feeling groggy when they wake up, but new research published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation suggests that these memory impairments can last as long as a week.
Researchers tested cognitive abilities in mice after putting them under and found the mice underperformed on the tests they were given for up to a week after being anesthetized.
"It's assumed that once the drugs are eliminated, our memories are going to go back to normal," said Beverly Orser, MD, a co-author of the study, in a Live Science report. "But when we test patients before and after a surgical procedure, a large number exhibit deficits in memory performance."
Dr. Orser and her co-authors suggest patients should be better warned of the potential risks to cognitive abilities of anesthesia before they go under the knife, according to the Live Science report.
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