Serum Neurofilament Light (NFL) in Surgery Under General Anaesthesia (GA) Compared to Surgery With Hypno-analgesia (Hyp)

Experimental studies have shown that inhalational anesthetics may be neurotoxic by for example causing amyloid beta deposition. Otherwise a pre-clinical study reported an increase in tau phosphorylation with the use of propofol. Whether anesthesia and surgery contribute to the development of long-term cognitive decline remains however controversial. A meta-analysis concluded that general anesthesia could increase the risk of postoperative cognitive decline (POCD) compared with regional or combined anesthesia but this was not shown for Postoperative delirium (POD). This conclusion should be interpreted with caution as these studies showed many shortcomings. Currently no study has compared the release of Neurofilament Light, a biomarker of neuronal injury, in patients undergoing surgery under general anesthesia compared to surgery with Hypno-analgesia and thus without anesthetic drugs.