Spine Surgery under general anesthesia may not increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
BACKGROUND
Volatile anesthetics cause Alzheimer's disease (AD)-like neuropathology in animals. We determined whether spine surgery under general anesthesia and anesthetic choice contributed to AD development.


METHODS
We searched the Clinical Data Repository of the University of Virginia for patients receiving spine surgery from January 1, 1992 to March 1, 2004. Patients with newly-diagnosed AD after the surgery but before March 1, 2009 (a minimal 5-year follow-up time after the surgery) were identified.


RESULTS
Among 10,161 spine surgery patients, 26 patients had new-onset AD. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses of the data from these 26 patients and from 161 randomly selected spine surgery patients without new-onset AD suggest that increasing age is a risk factor for new-onset AD. Gender, anesthesia/surgery time, use of volatile anesthetics versus propofol (an intravenous anesthetic) and length of hospital stay were not different between patients with and without new-onset AD. Similar results were found with the case-control study. The frequency of new-onset AD in spine surgery patients was similar to that of patients who had never had a surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that increasing age is a risk factor for AD in patients after spine surgery. Anesthesia/surgery may not be independent factors for AD development.
Zuo
Chaoshun
C
Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Zuo
Zhiyi
Z
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects*; D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation / Q000009:adverse effects; D018686:Anesthetics, Intravenous / Q000009:adverse effects; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013131:Spine / Q000601:surgery*
D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation; D018686:Anesthetics, Intravenous