Light anesthesia reduces risk of postoperative delirium in major surgery: Study

The trial included 655 at-risk patients undergoing major surgery from eight centers in three countries. Delirium was assessed for 5 days postoperatively using the 3 min confusion assessment method (3D-CAM) or CAM-ICU. They also assessed cognitive screening using the Mini-Mental State Examination at baseline and discharge and the Abbreviated Mental Test score (AMTS) at 30 days and 1 yr.

 The primary outcome was the presence of postoperative delirium on any of the first 5 postoperative days. 

Based on the study, the researchers found the following:

"Our results indicate that among patients undergoing major surgery, targeting light anesthesia reduced the risk of postoperative delirium and cognitive impairment at 1 yr," wrote the authors. 

Reference:

The study titled, "Anaesthetic depth and delirium after major surgery: a randomised clinical trial," is published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia.

DOI: https://www.bjanaesthesia.org/article/S0007-0912(21)00493-1/fulltext