{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"This Is Your Brain After Anesthetic: Dr. Peter Hedlin","description":"Peter Hedlin (PhD, MD) recalls being a \u2018young, na\u00efve medical student\u2019 when he asked a mentor a question that\u2019s stuck with him for years. \u201cI remember asking how anaesthetics work on the brain,\u201d said Hedlin. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018we actually don\u2019t really know\u2019. And I thought that was crazy.\u201d   Today, Hedlin is an anesthesiologist and clinician scientist at the University of Saskatchewan\u2019s College of Medicine. He examines what surgery and sedation do to the human body \u2014 in particular, to aging brains. Trained first as a microbiologist who earned his PhD as a vaccine researcher at VIDO (Vaccine and Infections Disease Organization), Hedlin was always drawn to medicine. He gravitated toward helping patients one-on-one, and loved the immediate feedback of operating\u2011room decisions.  \u201cI love to see immediate consequences of actions and anesthesia\u2019s perfect for that,\u201d he said. \u201cSome people hate being in hospitals, but I love it.\u201d   In this episode, Hedlin unpacks post\u2011operative delirium: the \u201cloopiness\u201d many people feel a day or two after surgery. Most of the grogginess eventually wears off, but for those over age 60, it can persist. In older adults, cognitive dysfunction may appear as visible agitation, as patients hallucinate or pull out intravenous lines following surgery. Conversely, it can be easier to miss when patients enter a quieter, hypoactive state, withdrawing and not talking as much.    That \u2018acute brain failure\u2019 can last weeks, months, even years. It\u2019s linked to longer hospital stays, higher short\u2011term mortality and a greater chance of ending up in long\u2011term care.  \u201cWe don\u2019t have a great understanding why that happens,\u201d said Hedlin. \u201cI\u2019d love to make care for our elderly patients better, and we know cognitive dysfunction in the surgical period is common.\u201d   Hedlin says that work begins before long the patient\u2019s surgery date. Along with nursing managers, psychiatric and geriatric specialists, he\u2019s piloting a screening tool to assess older patients for frailty and cognitive risk. He asks patients to bring along a friend or a family member, who knows their baseline, to assist with daily delirium checks before and after the operation.  \u201cWhen we can identify these patients several weeks before their surgery, then it gives potentially an opportunity to intervene and optimise that patient prior to their their surgical event,\u201d he said. Hedlin is also participating in larger, randomized studies, and is watching developments in other parts of the country with interest.   But Hedlin also points to simple fixes hospital staff can make, such as returning patients\u2019 hearing aids and glasses, and ensuring older patients get a good night\u2019s sleep after surgery. \u201cJust returning people to as normal a situation as possible is really quite helpful for reorienting them in that post-operative period,\u201d he said.   ","author_name":"Researchers Under the Scope","author_url":"https:\/\/medicine.usask.ca\/research\/index.php#ConnectWithUs","html":"