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Cumulative Exposure to General Anesthesias and Cognitive Dysfunction at Age 75 in the Vienna Transdanube Aging "VITA" Study

Received June 15, 2005; revised December 19, 2005; accepted December 30, 2005. Drs. Fischer and Wallner are affiliated with the Department of General Psychiatry, Vienna Medical University, Vienna, Austria. Drs. Jungwirth, Weissgram, and Tragl are affiliated with the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Aging Research, Vienna, Austria. Dr. Krampla is affiliated with the Ludwig Boltzmann Society, Institute of Digital Radiology and Interventional Radiology, Vienna, Austria. Dr. Bauer is affiliated with the Institute for Medical Statistics, Vienna Medical University, Vienna, Austria. Address correspondence to Dr. Fischer, Department of General Psychiatry, University Hospital for Psychiatry, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A–1090 Vienna/Wien, Austria; Peter.Fischer{at}meduniwien.ac.at (e-mail).

Some reports have described general anesthesias as a risk factor for dementia in the elderly. The authors investigated whether the number of general anesthesias during a lifetime was associated with cognitive functioning in the community-based age cohort of a geographical area of Vienna. Out of 606 seventy-five-year-old subjects, 43 reported not having undergone anesthesia and 113 reported five or more anesthesias. The number of general anesthesias was not associated with extensive psychometric data. Cognitive dysfunction at age 75 was significantly associated with level of education, a history of major head trauma, and having lived in a rural environment during childhood.

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