Memory Loss After Anesthesia, Antibiotics, Chemotherapy or Toxic Chemical Exposure

Many chemicals are able to enter the brain and cause debilitating harm. A variety of medicines have damaging side effects for some while others are able to tolerate them. Environmental toxic chemicals also enter the brain. An example from the 19th century is Mad Hatter’s disease caused by mercury poisoning. Today’s devastating disease is dementia. While some is age related, scientific research is finding the lingering effects of often life saving drugs to be damaging the fragile brain tissue.

Some people experience memory loss, cognitive decline or brain fog after receiving anesthesia. There is an actual diagnosis called Post Operative Cognitive Dysfunction (POCD) to describe this phenomenon. You may know this by another name – pump head – referring to the cognitive impairment experienced by some patients after heart bypass surgery.


Anesthesia certainly makes surgery more comfortable. Typically, anesthetic gasses wear off in minutes to hours. Research found that for up to 20% of patients anesthesia does not wear off. Anesthetic byproducts can get trapped anywhere in the body and the brain. Until the chemical residue is removed from the body, difficulties with memory, brain fog and other symptoms continue long after surgery.


One research study on how anesthesia works in the human brain unexpectedly discovered the chemicals actually affect the entire brain. Anesthesia does not affect just one region, so the chemical must be cleared from everywhere in the brain. Anesthetics are likely broken down by the liver and kidneys, and then naturally excreted.

In the largest study of its kind, Duke University Medical Center researchers have now documented that people commonly suffer memory loss after having surgery that required general anesthesia. Duke actually predicts cognitive decline for five years after heart bypass surgery.

Duke University Medical Center Study found
Effects of General Anesthesia on Memory

Heart Bypass Surgery Patients
80% – experience some type of memory
decline at hospital discharge
42% – FIVE years after discharge

Non-Heart Surgery Patients
59% – experience some type of memory
decline at hospital discharge
42% – TWO years after discharge

If you or someone you know believes they are suffering with the side effects of medicines or other toxic chemicals learn more about the treatment of  Memory Loss After Anesthesia, Antibiotics, Chemotherapy or Toxic Chemical Exposure or contact Dr Julia Lewis