ing medications after surgery that can affect their nervous system,
such as those for anxiety, seizures, muscle spasms or sleep aids.
Orient your patients. You can't reverse general anesthesia
instantly — it leaves a trace after emergence. Remember back to
your college days, finally falling asleep after pulling an all nighter.
Sometimes you'd wake up in a darkened room and have no idea what
time of day it was.
Help orient your patients and reduce confusion after they awake
from anesthesia. You could instruct patients to pack familiar items or
remind them via text alerts to bring them. Let your patients wear their
hearing aids or glasses as soon as possible after the procedure. Tell
your patient's at-home caregivers to tune in to the patient's favorite TV
shows to orient them to what time of day it is.
Ensure perioperative brain health
Use the tips outlined here and download the "Key Questions to Ask
Your Patients" (osmag.net/cX5YVe) to start the conversation about how
to help your older patients get back to their cognitive baseline post-op
and back to their everyday lives. We use the term "cognitive recovery."
I'm the chairman of the American Society of Anesthesiologists'
Brain Health Initiative, which hopes to raise awareness for patients
and their families to look for changes they may see after surgical dis-
charge, such as confusion or memory loss. I encourage you to do the
same while the patient is under your care.
OSM
Dr. Fleisher (lee.fleisher@uphs.upenn.edu) is chair of the American Society
of Anesthesiologists' ad hoc committee on Brain Health Initiative
(asahq.org/brainhealthinitiative) and chair of anesthesiology and critical
care at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in
Philadelphia, Pa.
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