Peter Falks Rapid Alzheimer’s Decline After Surgery

I came across this story about Peter Falk while I was on Twitter.  I was and am a big Peter Falk fan.  I still watch his old movies and repeats of the old Columbo TV series that Peter Falk starred in during the 1960′s.   I even have several seasons of the Columbo TV series on DVD.  Of course I was saddened to learn that Mr. Falk had Alzheimer’s disease but I was equally disturbed about other elements of the story.

The main thing that caught my attention was this section from the Associated Press article:

The Emmy-winning actor slipped rapidly into dementia since a series of dental operations in late 2007, Dr. Stephen Read testified Monday, the final day of a two-day conservatorship hearing.

Read said it was unclear whether Falk’s condition worsened as a result of anesthesia or some other reaction to the operation.

Read first evaluated Falk in June 2008 before the actor was scheduled to undergo hip surgery. His dementia and apparent Alzheimer’s disease worsened after that procedure, and Read said the actor no longer remembers his signature role in the series “Columbo.”

The story’s focus is actually about Falk being placed in Conservatorship and family issues between Falk, his wife and daughter.  But the reason it caught my attention was the part about his mental deterioration following surgery.  I have a friend whose family experienced something similar.  Last summer her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease but it was in early stages.  A few months later her mother fell and broke her hip and had to have hip replacement surgery.  After the surgery, her mother’s Alzheimer’s worsened.

This begs a question that I can’t answer.  What is the correlation between the rapid progression of dementia/Alzheimer’s disease and surgery.  If there is a correlation, do you weigh the value of the surgery against the value of the patient’s mental condition?  If anyone can shed some light on this, I would really appreciate the feedback (and so would my readers).

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