Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov;41(8):1853-1861.
doi: 10.1002/nau.25035. Epub 2022 Sep 1.

Cognitive function following surgery for pelvic organ prolapse

Daisy Hassani  1 , Nathanael Koelper  2 , Yelizaveta Borodyanskaya  1 , Nisha G Arya  3 , Hengyi Rao  4 , Uduak Andy  1
Affiliations

Cognitive function following surgery for pelvic organ prolapse

Daisy Hassani et al. Neurourol Urodyn. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Introduction and hypothesis: Older women are at higher risk for cognitive dysfunction following surgery. We hypothesized that for women undergoing pelvic organ prolapse (POP) surgery, memory function would not be significantly different at delayed postoperative assessment compared to baseline.

Objective: We sought to compare performance on tests of various neurocognitive domains before and after surgery for POP.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted with women, aged 60 years and older who were undergoing surgery for POP. A battery of highly sensitive neurocognitive tests was administered preoperatively (baseline), on postoperative day 1 (postoperative visit 1, POV1), and at the first postoperative clinic visit 4-6 weeks after surgery (postoperative visit 2, POV2). The test battery included the scene-encoding memory task, the n-back task, the Iowa gambling task, the balloon analogue risk task, and the psychomotor vigilance task. These tests assessed the neurocognitive subdomains of episodic memory, working memory, decision-making, risk-taking, and sustained attention. Two score comparisons were made: between baseline and POV1, and between baseline and POV2.

Results: In 29 women, performance on the scene-encoding memory task was worse at POV1 than at baseline (2.22 ± 0.4 vs. 2.45 ± 0.6, p < 0.05) but was better than baseline at POV2 (2.7 ± 0.7 vs. 2.45 ± 0.6, p < 0.05). Similarly, performance on the psychomotor vigilance test was worse at POV1 than at baseline (p < 0.01) but there was no difference at POV2. There was no difference in performance on the Iowa gambling test, n-back test, and balloon analogue risk tasks between baseline and any postoperative visit.

Conclusion: Cognitive test scores did not worsen significantly between baseline and delayed postoperative assessments in older women undergoing surgery for POP.

Keywords: cognitive function; memory; pelvic organ prolapse; surgery.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest disclosure: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Flow diagram of study participants
Figure 2:
Figure 2:
Scene-encoding memory task scores across visits
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Shoair OA, Grasso Ii MP, Lahaye LA, Daniel R, Biddle CJ, Slattum PW. Incidence and risk factors for postoperative cognitive dysfunction in older adults undergoing major noncardiac surgery: A prospective study. J Anaesthesiol Clin Pharmacol. 2015;31(1):30–36. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Moller JT, Cluitmans P, Rasmussen LS, et al. Long-term postoperative cognitive dysfunction in the elderly ISPOCD1 study. ISPOCD investigators. International Study of Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction. Lancet. 1998;351(9106):857–861. - PubMed
    1. Schumpf LF, Theill N, Scheiner DA, Fink D, Riese F, Betschart C. Urinary incontinence and its association with functional physical and cognitive health among female nursing home residents in Switzerland. BMC Geriatr. 2017;17(1):17. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Trowbridge ER, Kim D, Barletta K, Fitz V, Larkin S, Hullfish KL. Prevalence of positive screening test for cognitive impairment among elderly urogynecologic patients. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2016;215(5). - PubMed
    1. Belrose JC, Noppens RR. Anesthesiology and cognitive impairment: a narrative review of current clinical literature. BMC Anesthesiol. 2019;19(1):241. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types