Aftereffects in children

Just like adults, children react very differently to anesthesia. The drugs used in general anesthesia have a central effect on the brain, which is why children and also adults can show unusual behavior after anesthesia. Anaesthetic after-effects in children occur mainly after longer or larger operations and are completely normal, which is why parents should not be very concerned.

Since for many children an operation is a great psychological burden, which is connected with many fears, the anaesthetic is very carefully applied to ensure that the child is sleeping sufficiently deeply at all times. Directly after waking up, confusion and memory disorders often occur. Especially children of kindergarten age also show strong restlessness and rage and scream because they cannot assess the situation.

This behavior usually recedes after a few minutes to hours and the children come to rest. In some cases, children complain of nausea and dizziness after anesthesia. This too should disappear after a short time.

Headaches and sleeping disorders are also reported. During the time when the gases and medication are still in the child’s body, the child suffers from after-effects of anaesthesia, and can often be weepy, agitated and restless. Depending on the operation, the child may also experience other after-effects of anaesthesia, such as short-term sensations in the operated area or sore throat caused by the breathing tube. Especially in children, these sleep disorders are often the result of the unfamiliar environment and situation. Due to the dizziness and balance problems, children should not actively participate in road traffic for one day, even after small, outpatient operations.

Aftereffects in older people

The after-effects of anaesthesia in older people are often much stronger than the after-effects in young patients and in rare cases can also lead to permanent changes in the elderly patient. In addition to the classic symptoms that occur after an operation, such as fatigue, nausea or mild confusion, there are also after-effects after an anaesthetic in older people, such as severe confusion or long-term fatigue.The reason for this is that in many older patients organs such as the liver or kidney no longer function as well as in a young healthy patient, so that the drugs are metabolized more slowly and remain in the body longer. In addition, the brain of older patients is much more susceptible to the after-effects of anaesthesia than the brain of a young patient, so that the anaesthetic gases and also the medication for sleeping are more intensive and thus also show stronger after-effects.

Many patients are afraid that after the anaesthesia there will be after-effects in the elderly, which affect the brain so much that the patient develops dementia-like symptoms. This is mainly due to the fact that some elderly patients are very forgetful and confused for a long time after surgery. Whether there are after-effects in older people after anaesthesia that should be considered Alzheimer’s disease or dementia is currently a matter of controversy.

However, it is assumed that anaesthesia can damage the elderly patient over a longer period of time, resulting in dementia-like symptoms or dementia. This anaesthetic after-effect in older people occurs more often after long and complicated operations. In general, however, it is quite rare for long lasting disorders to occur, so the normal anaesthetic after-effects in the elderly should not be interpreted directly as dementia, as it is perfectly normal for confusion to occur after surgery.