My mother has just been scheduled for a thyroidectomy. She has a 'working' diagnosis of LBD.

Not long ago I read an article about the danger of general anesthesia worsening this condition but of course I cannot find it now. I am wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of some good information that I can share with the surgeon/anesthesiologist.

thank you in advance!
Kim

Kim,

You could do a search of past posts on the subject of anesthesia. Some amount of info has been posted on this in the past. Start here:
http://community.lbda.org/forum/search.php

Robin

My mother just had surgery on Wednesday and they were able to give her an epidural with minimal amounts of anestethia (sp?). We supplied the anestethiologist with a pamphlet from LBDA that outlined the risks of anesthethia in Lewy Body patients. My mother also had a surgery in early January but was not a candidate for the epidural because they had just given her a blood thinner shot. This time we were prepared with our information from LBDA and we took her off of her daily aspirin. The OR nurses were very thankful for the information we shared with them. (I'm sure you see the same things as our family, many in the medical profession have never even heard of LBD.) I just ordered more of the Facts about LBD pamphlets from the website because we only have one left. The OR nurse made copies because she said she wanted to educate all her coworkers!!
I hope that helps.

CMT -
Thanks for sharing this great info. I hope your mother is recovering quickly from surgery.
Robin

CMT, you were so right to bring that information with you.

A year ago, before we knew anything about LBD or Mom's situation, she broke both shoulders. These were replaced in two separate surgeries, two months apart. The first time (which was Mom's first surgery ever), Mom was given the same type and amount of anesthesia as a healthy person. She was also given an extremely strong pain med just before leaving the hospital, which kept her there, then, for a few more days.

It took Mom weeks, if not a whole month, to return to any semblance of her former self. Actually, she never recovered from it fully. I do have to say that the anesthesiologist was the same for both surgeries, remembered (in the record, of course but at least he took the time to look) that Mom had experienced such a bad reaction. He made changes in her anesthesia and her second surgery went much better.

Mom was also on a blood thinner (cumadin) that she was advised to stop taking several days before each surgery.

I have no idea whether her reaction had anything to do with LBD, but it would explain a lot of things, including the way she has continued to go downhill since then. Mom may never have surgery again, but I make sure all medical people she encounters know about her LBD.

CMT, I hope your Mom is still recovering well. The preparation you provided to the surgical team very likely made a huge difference. Bravo!

Kate