Risk of Dementia After Uterus or Prostate Resection: 17-Year Follow-Up of a Population-Based Retrospective Cohort...

The purpose of this retrospective study was to determine the effect of surgical operation, age at surgery, sex hormones, and anesthesia modality on the risk of dementia in both sexes.

Data of females aged between 30 and 70 years old who were diagnosed with dysmenorrhea and underwent hysterectomy/myomectomy or without surgery, and males with benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) with or without transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) were identified from the National Health Insurance Research Database 2000-2016. The effect of age at surgery, surgery type, and anesthesia modality on dementia risk was assessed using Cox regression analyses.

Among the 855,893 subjects, 10,242 developed dementia. Surgery at older age increased dementia risk in both sexes. Among females, hysterectomy/myomectomy was not significantly associated with dementia risk, although myomectomy was associated with a lower risk for dementia than hysterectomy. In males, TURP significantly increased the risk of dementia.

Men with BPH and women with dysmenorrhea who were older at surgery have a higher risk of dementia. Regardless of the anesthetic method, surgery increased the risk of dementia in men. Among the data of women, although the surgery factor was not significantly associated with dementia risk, women with myomectomy had a lower risk of dementia than the ones with hysterectomy. These findings together contributed to risk stratification for each sex in such surgical settings.