Study authors noted that screening for postoperative delirium in older adults is likely in the best interests of patients. However, they also mentioned that such screening may identify cases of postoperative delirium that were previously unrecognized, resulting in higher rates. In addition, the inclusion of only ACS NSQIP hospitals and the voluntary participation may mean a biased dataset. No one delirium prevention intervention was implemented across the hospitals and so the study doesn’t indicate why some hospitals are more successful than are others. Chart-based identification of patients who have delirium needs further study to assess validity.
Authors concluded that one solution may be to “standardize and consistently employ delirium screening in high-risk patients across hospitals, as has been advocated by a coalition of interdisciplinary experts in geriatric care.”
This project is funded in part by a grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation. The authors declare no conflict of interests.
SOURCE: Berlan JR et al. Ann Surg. 2017 July 24. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000002436