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The New England Journal of Medicine Oct 2017A 75-year-old man is admitted for scheduled major abdominal surgery. He is functionally independent, with mild forgetfulness. His intraoperative course is uneventful,... (Review)
Review
A 75-year-old man is admitted for scheduled major abdominal surgery. He is functionally independent, with mild forgetfulness. His intraoperative course is uneventful, but on postoperative day 2, severe confusion and agitation develop. What is going on? How would you manage this patient’s care? Could his condition have been prevented?
Topics: Aged; Delirium; Hospitalization; Humans; Male; Postoperative Complications; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Risk Factors
PubMed: 29020579
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMcp1605501 -
F1000Research 2019Postoperative delirium is a common and harrowing complication in older surgical patients. Those with cognitive impairment or dementia are at especially high risk for... (Review)
Review
Postoperative delirium is a common and harrowing complication in older surgical patients. Those with cognitive impairment or dementia are at especially high risk for developing postoperative delirium; ominously, it is hypothesized that delirium can accelerate cognitive decline and the onset of dementia, or worsen the severity of dementia. Awareness of delirium has grown in recent years as various medical societies have launched initiatives to prevent postoperative delirium and alleviate its impact. Unfortunately, delirium pathophysiology is not well understood and this likely contributes to the current state of low-quality evidence that informs perioperative guidelines. Along these lines, recent prevention trials involving ketamine and dexmedetomidine have demonstrated inconsistent findings. Non-pharmacologic multicomponent initiatives, such as the Hospital Elder Life Program, have consistently reduced delirium incidence and burden across various hospital settings. However, a substantial portion of delirium occurrences are still not prevented, and effective prevention and management strategies are needed to complement such multicomponent non-pharmacologic therapies. In this narrative review, we examine the current understanding of delirium neurobiology and summarize the present state of prevention and management efforts.
Topics: Aged; Delirium; Humans; Incidence; Postoperative Complications
PubMed: 31105934
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.16780.1 -
Nature Reviews. Neurology Apr 2009Delirium is a common and serious acute neuropsychiatric syndrome with core features of inattention and global cognitive dysfunction. The etiologies of delirium are... (Review)
Review
Delirium is a common and serious acute neuropsychiatric syndrome with core features of inattention and global cognitive dysfunction. The etiologies of delirium are diverse and multifactorial and often reflect the pathophysiological consequences of an acute medical illness, medical complication or drug intoxication. Delirium can have a widely variable presentation, and is often missed and underdiagnosed as a result. At present, the diagnosis of delirium is clinically based and depends on the presence or absence of certain features. Management strategies for delirium are focused on prevention and symptom management. This article reviews current clinical practice in delirium in elderly individuals, including the diagnosis, treatment, outcomes and economic impact of this syndrome. Areas of future research are also discussed.
Topics: Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Delirium; Geriatric Assessment; Humans
PubMed: 19347026
DOI: 10.1038/nrneurol.2009.24 -
Annual Review of Medicine Jan 2022Delirium, an acute disturbance in mental status due to another medical condition, is common and morbid in the intensive care unit. Despite its clear association with... (Review)
Review
Delirium, an acute disturbance in mental status due to another medical condition, is common and morbid in the intensive care unit. Despite its clear association with multiple common risk factors and important outcomes, including mortality and long-term cognitive impairment, both the ultimate causes of and ideal treatments for delirium remain unclear. Studies suggest that neuroinflammation, hypoxia, alterations in energy metabolism, and imbalances in multiple neurotransmitter pathways contribute to delirium, but commonly used treatments (e.g., antipsychotic medications) target only one or a few of these potential mechanisms and are not supported by evidence of efficacy. At this time, the optimal treatment for delirium during critical illness remains avoidance of risk factors, though ongoing trials may expand on the promise shown by agents such as melatonin and dexmedetomidine.
Topics: Critical Care; Critical Illness; Delirium; Humans; Intensive Care Units; Morbidity
PubMed: 34752706
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-med-042220-013015 -
Neurologic Clinics Feb 2022Altered mental status is a nonspecific diagnosis that encompasses a wide spectrum of disease and is frequently cited as a reason for both hospital admission and... (Review)
Review
Altered mental status is a nonspecific diagnosis that encompasses a wide spectrum of disease and is frequently cited as a reason for both hospital admission and inpatient neurologic consultation. There are numerous etiologies of altered mental status, and so although many are facile with the workup of this potentially life-threatening entity, it can nevertheless be overwhelming. Our goal was to provide a practical framework embedded in a current, comprehensive review of the epidemiology, clinical evaluation, and management of undifferentiated altered mental status. We pay particular attention to the management of a critical yet underdiagnosed subtype of altered mental status: delirium.
Topics: Delirium; Humans; Inpatients
PubMed: 34798974
DOI: 10.1016/j.ncl.2021.08.004 -
JAMA Neurology Nov 2020Delirium is associated with increased hospital costs, health care complications, and increased mortality. Long-term consequences of delirium on cognition have not been... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
IMPORTANCE
Delirium is associated with increased hospital costs, health care complications, and increased mortality. Long-term consequences of delirium on cognition have not been synthesized and quantified via meta-analysis.
OBJECTIVE
To determine if an episode of delirium was an independent risk factor for long-term cognitive decline, and if it was, whether it was causative or an epiphenomenon in already compromised individuals.
DATA SOURCES
A systematic search in PubMed, Cochrane, and Embase was conducted from January 1, 1965, to December 31, 2018. A systematic review guided by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses was conducted. Search terms included delirium AND postoperative cognitive dysfunction; delirium and cognitive decline; delirium AND dementia; and delirium AND memory.
STUDY SELECTION
Inclusion criteria for studies included contrast between groups with delirium and without delirium; an objective continuous or binary measure of cognitive outcome; a final time point of 3 or more months after the delirium episode. The electronic search was conducted according to established methodologies and was executed on October 17, 2018.
DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS
Three authors extracted data on individual characteristics, study design, and outcome, followed by a second independent check on outcome measures. Effect sizes were calculated as Hedges g. If necessary, binary outcomes were also converted to g. Only a single effect size was calculated for each study.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The planned main outcome was magnitude of cognitive decline in Hedges g effect size in delirium groups when contrasted with groups that did not experience delirium.
RESULTS
Of 1583 articles, data subjected from the 24 studies (including 3562 patients who experienced delirium and 6987 controls who did not) were included in a random-effects meta-analysis for pooled effect estimates and random-effects meta-regressions to identify sources of study variance. One study was excluded as an outlier. There was a significant association between delirium and long-term cognitive decline, as the estimated effect size (Hedges g) for 23 studies was 0.45 (95% CI, 0.34-0.57; P < .001). In all studies, the group that experienced delirium had worse cognition at the final time point. The I2 measure of between-study variability in g was 0.81. A multivariable meta-regression suggested that duration of follow-up (longer with larger gs), number of covariates controlled (greater numbers were associated with smaller gs), and baseline cognitive matching (matching was associated with larger gs) were significant sources of variance. More specialized subgroup and meta-regressions were consistent with predictions that suggested that delirium may be a causative factor in cognitive decline.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
In this meta-analysis, delirium was significantly associated with long-term cognitive decline in both surgical and nonsurgical patients.
Topics: Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; Cognitive Dysfunction; Delirium; Humans; Observational Studies as Topic; Risk Factors
PubMed: 32658246
DOI: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2020.2273 -
The New England Journal of Medicine Mar 2006
Review
Topics: Aged; Anti-Anxiety Agents; Antipsychotic Agents; Delirium; Dementia; Diagnosis, Differential; Humans; Lorazepam; Quality of Health Care; Risk Factors; Trazodone
PubMed: 16540616
DOI: 10.1056/NEJMra052321 -
International Journal of Molecular... Mar 2020The presentation of common acute diseases in older age is often referred to as "atypical". Frequently, the symptoms are neither single nor tissue related. In most cases,... (Review)
Review
The presentation of common acute diseases in older age is often referred to as "atypical". Frequently, the symptoms are neither single nor tissue related. In most cases, the onset of symptoms and diseases is the expression of a diminished reserve with a failure of the body system and imbalance of brain function. Delirium is one of the main devastating and prevalent atypical symptoms and could be considered as a geriatric syndrome. It encompasses an array of neuropsychiatric symptoms and represents a disarrangement of the cerebral function in response to one or more stressors. The most recent definition, reported in the DSM-V, depicts delirium as a clear disturbance in attention and awareness. The deficit is to be developed in a relatively short time period (usually hours or days). The attention disorder must be associated with another cognitive impairment in memory, orientation, language, visual-spatial or perception abilities. For the treatment, it is imperative to remove the potential causes of delirium before prescribing drugs. Even a non-pharmacological approach to reducing the precipitating causes should be identified and planned. When we are forced to approach the pharmacological treatment of hyperactive delirium in older persons, we should select highly cost-effective drugs. High attention should be devoted to the correct balance between improvement of psychiatric symptoms and occurrence of side effects. Clinicians should be guided in the correct choice of drugs following cluster symptoms presentation, excluding drugs that could potentially produce complications rather than advantages. In this brief point-of-view, we propose a novel pharmacological flow-chart of treatment in relation to the basic clusters of diseases of an older patient acutely admitted to the hospital and, in particular, we emphasize "What We Should Not Do!", with the intention of avoiding possible side effects of drugs used.
Topics: Acute Disease; Cognition Disorders; Cognitive Dysfunction; Delirium; Hospitalization; Humans; Psychotropic Drugs
PubMed: 32244301
DOI: 10.3390/ijms21072397 -
Minerva Anestesiologica Jun 2022Postoperative delirium is a frequent occurrence in the elderly surgical population. As a comprehensive list of predictive factors remains unknown, an opioid-sparing... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
INTRODUCTION
Postoperative delirium is a frequent occurrence in the elderly surgical population. As a comprehensive list of predictive factors remains unknown, an opioid-sparing approach incorporating regional anesthesia techniques has been suggested to decrease its incidence. Due to the lack of conclusive evidence on the topic, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the potential impact of regional anesthesia and analgesia on postoperative delirium.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION
PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane central register of Controlled trials (CENTRAL) databases were searched for randomized trials comparing regional anesthesia or analgesia to systemic treatments in patients having any type of surgery. This systematic review and meta-analysis followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. We pooled the results separately for each of these two applications by random effects modelling. Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) system was used to evaluate the certainty of evidence and strength of conclusions.
EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS
Eighteen trials (3361 subjects) were included. Using regional techniques for surgical anesthesia failed to reduce the risk of postoperative delirium, with a relative risk (RR) of 1.21 (95% CI: 0.79 to 1.85); P=0.3800. In contrast, regional analgesia reduced the relative risk of perioperative delirium by a RR of 0.53 (95% CI: 0.42 to 0.68; P<0.0001), when compared to systemic analgesia. Post-hoc subgroup analysis for hip fracture surgery yielded similar findings.
CONCLUSIONS
These results show that postoperative delirium may be decreased when regional techniques are used in the postoperative period as an analgesic strategy. Intraoperative regional anesthesia alone may not decrease postoperative delirium since there are other factors that may influence this outcome.
Topics: Aged; Anesthesia, Conduction; Anesthesia, Local; Delirium; Hip Fractures; Humans
PubMed: 35164487
DOI: 10.23736/S0375-9393.22.16076-1 -
European Journal of Anaesthesiology Feb 2024Postoperative delirium (POD) remains a common, dangerous and resource-consuming adverse event but is often preventable. The whole peri-operative team can play a key role...
Postoperative delirium (POD) remains a common, dangerous and resource-consuming adverse event but is often preventable. The whole peri-operative team can play a key role in its management. This update to the 2017 ESAIC Guideline on the prevention of POD is evidence-based and consensus-based and considers the literature between 01 April 2015, and 28 February 2022. The search terms of the broad literature search were identical to those used in the first version of the guideline published in 2017. POD was defined in accordance with the DSM-5 criteria. POD had to be measured with a validated POD screening tool, at least once per day for at least 3 days starting in the recovery room or postanaesthesia care unit on the day of surgery or, at latest, on postoperative day 1. Recent literature confirmed the pathogenic role of surgery-induced inflammation, and this concept reinforces the positive role of multicomponent strategies aimed to reduce the surgical stress response. Although some putative precipitating risk factors are not modifiable (length of surgery, surgical site), others (such as depth of anaesthesia, appropriate analgesia and haemodynamic stability) are under the control of the anaesthesiologists. Multicomponent preoperative, intra-operative and postoperative preventive measures showed potential to reduce the incidence and duration of POD, confirming the pivotal role of a comprehensive and team-based approach to improve patients' clinical and functional status.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Emergence Delirium; Anesthesiology; Postoperative Complications; Delirium; Consensus; Critical Care; Risk Factors
PubMed: 37599617
DOI: 10.1097/EJA.0000000000001876