The mental fog of 'pump-head' is not a result of surgery
HEART DISEASE
For patients with clogged heart arteries, deciding whether to get a stent or opt for bypass surgery can be tricky, since both strategies have their pros and cons. Bypass surgery, in which the heart's function is temporarily replaced with a mechanical pump, has long been implicated in what's commonly called "pump head" - a mental fog that can occur even years after surgery. To find out whether surgery really is the culprit for such memory and language losses, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, including principal investigator Dr. Guy McKhann, followed 152 heart disease patients who had bypass surgery and 92 heart disease patients who had a nonsurgical treatment. Every few months for nearly six years, researchers gave the patients a battery of tests that examined their memory, attention, and ability to reason out problems. It became apparent that all heart disease patients - whether they had bypass or not - had similar losses in brain function. "We don't think the long term cognitive effects are because of bypass surgery - instead, these changes might have to do with the same disease process that affects the vessels of the heart," says McKhann.
BOTTOM LINE: In the long run, heart disease, rather than bypass surgery, seems to be the culprit in the loss of mental sharpness that some patients suffer.
CAUTIONS: The study was not randomized - meaning other unmeasured factors might have affected the results.
WHAT'S NEXT: The authors are examining how these patterns of cognitive decline compare to patients who have no heart disease.
WHERE TO FIND IT: Annals of Neurology, May
SUSHRUT JANGI 