Thomas Fenzl
Title
Predictive EEG parameter to investigate the relationship between pre-anesthetic anxiety/stress and post-anesthetic cognitive impairments
Abstract
After surgery under general anesthesia (GA), up to 80% of patients may suffer from postoperative delirium (POD), ranging from mild and transient cognitive impairments to chronic cognitive deficits. This is even more true for patients suffering from Alzheimer´s Disease. Preoperative anxiety (POA) and/or preoperative stress (POS) seem to be key triggers linked to POD, but systemic-mechanistic relationships between clinically relevant POA, POS and POD remain largely unknown.
The presentation will highlight some of our major approaches on how we recently established the first animal model for POD. This model separates between POA and POS and allows us to investigate GA-dependent physiological processes and morphological conditions systemically in vivo, that potentially lead to postoperative cognitive impairments and POD. Additionally, EEG-based parameter at temporal and spectral level of the animal model can already predict intrinsic levels of anxiety in naïve mice. This may hold the potential to also predict the potential level of POD after GA, prior to the impact of GA. Future clinical applications may reach from general risk assessments of GA in patients undergoing surgery all the way to a decision tool on whether GA might be too much of a risk for severe and chronic POD in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Biography
Thomas Frenzl is a Principle Investigator in at Technical University of Munich. His lab provides a findings about several aspects of sleep and anesthesia.