A toxic protein most common in older patients may be passed on even if surgeons sterilise equipment GETTY IMAGESBrain surgeons may have to operate on the over-50s with separate tools after a study suggested that a substance implicated in haemorrhages and Alzheimer’s disease can be spread through contaminated metal instruments. The “seeds” of a toxic protein that causes bleeding on the brain appear to have been planted in eight neurosurgery patients when they were children or young adults. All developed brain haemorrhages decades later and at least three of them died as a result. The protein may be passed on even if surgeons sterilise their equipment. One senior brain surgeon called the situation “potentially a logistical and financial nightmare” because the substance is found in up to 44…

Source: The Times February 16, 2018 00:04 UTC