During the first months of the covid pandemic, several doctors had noticed that this new virus seemed to cause unprecedented damage some functions of the brain. New research reveals that anesthesia could, in an unexpected way, help patients recover… with just a few weeks of “sleep”.
One of the surprises, in 2020, was in fact that patients discharged from intensive care and placed under anesthesia took weeks, even months, before regaining full consciousness.
An opportunity for the brain
Subsequently, however, they showed no brain damage. Brain damage initially caused by the virus was suspected to be to blame.
But the team of neurologist Nicholas Schiff, of Weill College of Medicine delCornell University, proposes this week to look at the problem in the other direction. The anesthesia would have been an opportunity for the brain to repair the damage.
As in certain species, the brain goes into a state of semi-hibernation during the winter. A sort of “protective” mode, which humans usually can’t fit into, but maybe technology allows.
