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Suggest Treatment For Severe Dizziness In An Elderly Person
Question: My aunt is 77 years old. She has Neurofibromatosis since she was a child with no effect on her functions. She lately started to forget many day to day details arbitrarily.. sometimes very alert and sometimes not. She broke her thie hinge and had to go thru the operation of fixing a cemented hinge 2 weeks ago. Now she practices little movement training yet with Zero apetite and thus very little food.. she started to talk none sence and we got a local Neurologist who ordered the tests attached. He connected her to Ringer solution to control the Sodium and Potassium levels until the analysis results are received.. her senile talks are now lesser yet she does not eat at all.. and started to suffer severe dizziness upon trying to move. Now I received them and attach them hereto wanting your assessment
Brief Answer:
dementia probably...
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
the tests you've uploaded do not justify her clinical status completely. She does have significant anemia and she also has chronic kidney disease but they're not enough by themselves. Did she have signs of dementia before the operation? It's very common for patients with mild dementia (a little forgetfulness that is) to experience serious but usually transient worsening after being exposed to the drugs of anesthesia and a serious operation like this. The anemia may contribute to this worsening and since she's showing signs of cerebral dysfunction perhaps a transfusion has to be considered.
Her anemia may have been caused by her chronic kidney disease but the fracture and the operation are important factors as well. This kind of fracture and operation result in significant blood loss so a mild anemia could transform to serious anemia. A sudden loss 'costs' more on brain function in such patients.
So in conclusion, if the neurologist does not have a better explanation (like a stroke for example) for her sudden worsening then perhaps the only thing to consider improving is her hematocrit with transfusion of red blood cells.
I hope it helps!
Kind Regards!
dementia probably...
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
the tests you've uploaded do not justify her clinical status completely. She does have significant anemia and she also has chronic kidney disease but they're not enough by themselves. Did she have signs of dementia before the operation? It's very common for patients with mild dementia (a little forgetfulness that is) to experience serious but usually transient worsening after being exposed to the drugs of anesthesia and a serious operation like this. The anemia may contribute to this worsening and since she's showing signs of cerebral dysfunction perhaps a transfusion has to be considered.
Her anemia may have been caused by her chronic kidney disease but the fracture and the operation are important factors as well. This kind of fracture and operation result in significant blood loss so a mild anemia could transform to serious anemia. A sudden loss 'costs' more on brain function in such patients.
So in conclusion, if the neurologist does not have a better explanation (like a stroke for example) for her sudden worsening then perhaps the only thing to consider improving is her hematocrit with transfusion of red blood cells.
I hope it helps!
Kind Regards!
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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