Can being in surgery for hours cause a personality change?

My husband had no chemo. He has mentally not declined. Thanks.

Yes, my mom was diagnosed with uterine cancer at the age of 80. She elected to have a hysterectomy and chemo. There was a drastic change in her, she was diagnosed with dementia about the same time.


Did the surgery and chemo speed the progression of dementia? Who knows. Did we pay mom more attention after the surgery? Yes, probably. Did the surgery and anesthesia change her? Yes, definitely? We will never know for sure what the cause was. Mom is now in the later stages of Alzheimer's Disease. The surgery was ten years ago.

Love him while you have him.

There is a possibility that a small stroke might have occured. I would get him to a neurologist who works with a neuropsychologist for brain imaging and baseline cognitive testing. You may find that he's had some cognitive decline.

Yes, there is definitely something to that cause my Mom knew a man at church who was never the same after he had a lengthy surgery. My Mom had open heart surgery and was a little different initially but seemed to go back to her old self after a couple of months.

Yes, it could. But you would need to have brain imaging from before and after to prove there is a difference. Chemo also affects the brain.