Silent' Strokes After Elective Surgeries in Older Adults Double Their Risk of Later Cognitive Decline, Study Finds

A study in The Lancet determined older adults who undergo elective surgeries often suffer "silent" strokes that doubles their risk of cognitive decline a year later, reports the Globe and Mail . Silent strokes can happen without patients noticing them, but are detected in brain scans. The study group received magnetic resonance imaging of the brain between two to nine days post-surgery. Seven percent of subjects 65 or older experienced a silent stroke after elective, non-cardiac surgery. Participants who had silent stroke were more than twice as likely to experience delirium after surgery. They also exhibited a twofold increase in likelihood of experiencing cognitive decline, and a fourfold increase in probability of having an overt stroke or ministroke a year later. "What we demonstrated was consistent across all non-cardiac surgeries — so in all types of surgeries, we saw these strokes — and across all centers involved in the study," said McMaster University's P.J. Devereaux. "This establishes that it's not infrequent."