Dementia after surgery

[SJ63]

My dad (72 yo) had spinal surgery approx 7 weeks ago.  Prior to his surgery he was relatively fine.  He had a few incidents of confusion, mostly at night, but nothing severe.  Since his surgery he has been in and out of psychosis.  Hallucinating with varying degrees of agitation and combativeness.  He has been treated by many different doctors (in and out of the hospital) and many different anti psychotic medications.  Each time he is given a different medication he responds in the opposite way they expect.  At present he is in the hospital being treated with yet another type of anti psychotic medication and is getting worse.  He is not eating, drinking, and won't even open his eyes.  They've had to insert a nasogastric tube for nutrition.  I'm scared.  I feel i'm losing my dad.  I work in the medical field and have seen many patients with post op dementia, but it doesn't last for more than a few days.  Is this normal for him to go so long?

Sue

[cheeps]

Seroquel might help. He will get better but may never get back to his normal self. This info is scarce unless you talk to those who have had relatives who have been through it.

[cheeps]

He may have Lewy Body Disease. It's the anesthesia that causes the trigger in memory and hallucinations. Very common to those who know where to look.


www.lewybody.org


A good resource is a yahoo group for this same brain disorder.

[SJ63]

i do not think they have done anything like that.  the only test's i know for sure they have done is ct's (multiple) and an eeg.  we were told all were negative until the last one done this past sunday that showed atrophy in the brain.  he is having another ct scan this morning.  no one has yet to do an mri...why, i don't know.

sue

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

No, it is not normal for simple post op confusion to last this long.  Have your doctors done a study of your father's cerebral blood flow...that's where I would look first, given this picture.