Cognitive Function Following Surgery for Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Introduction And Hypothesis: Older women are at higher risk for cognitive dysfunction following surgery. We hypothesized that for women undergoing pelvic organ prolapse (POP) surgery, memory function would not be significantly different at delayed postoperative assessment compared to baseline.

Objective: We sought to compare performance on tests of various neurocognitive domains before and after surgery for POP.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted with women, aged 60 years and older who were undergoing surgery for POP. A battery of highly sensitive neurocognitive tests was administered preoperatively (baseline), on postoperative day 1 (postoperative visit 1, POV1), and at the first postoperative clinic visit 4-6 weeks after surgery (postoperative visit 2, POV2). The test battery included the scene-encoding memory task, the n-back task, the Iowa gambling task, the balloon analogue risk task, and the psychomotor vigilance task. These tests assessed the neurocognitive subdomains of episodic memory, working memory, decision-making, risk-taking, and sustained attention. Two score comparisons were made: between baseline and POV1, and between baseline and POV2.

Results: In 29 women, performance on the scene-encoding memory task was worse at POV1 than at baseline (2.22 ± 0.4 vs. 2.45 ± 0.6, p < 0.05) but was better than baseline at POV2 (2.7 ± 0.7 vs. 2.45 ± 0.6, p < 0.05). Similarly, performance on the psychomotor vigilance test was worse at POV1 than at baseline (p < 0.01) but there was no difference at POV2. There was no difference in performance on the Iowa gambling test, n-back test, and balloon analogue risk tasks between baseline and any postoperative visit.

Conclusion: Cognitive test scores did not worsen significantly between baseline and delayed postoperative assessments in older women undergoing surgery for POP.