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" Administering general anaesthesia to older people may increase their risk of dementia by more than a third, new research suggests. Scientists at INSERM and the University of Bordeaux in France analysed data on more than 9,000 people, aged 65 and over, who were assessed regularly for ten years, including cognitive tests and recording any recent history of anaesthesia. At the first two-year follow-up appointment, 19 per cent of the participants had undergone a general anaesthetic and 14 per cent a local anaesthetic. Nine per cent of participants developed dementia over the next eight years and the researchers discovered that people with dementia were more likely to have received anaesthesia (37 per cent) than those without dementia (32 per cent). When the researchers looked solely at general anaesthesia, they found that people with at least one general anaesthetic over the follow-up period had a 35 per cent increased risk of dementia. Dr Francois Sztark, who presented the findings at the annual congress of the European Society of Anaesthesiology, commented: &amp;#039;These results are in favour of an increased risk for dementia several years after general anaesthesia.&amp;#039; \u00A0\u00A0 \u00A0 He added that longer-term follow-up studies are now needed. Visit the congress website\u00A0 "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/news/a23940/general-anaesthetic-may-increase-dementia-risk/>