Introduction: Preoperative cognitive impairments increase the risk of postoperative complications. The electroencephalogram (EEG) could provide information on cognitive vulnerability. The feasibility and clinical relevance of sleep EEG (EEGsleep ) compared to intraoperative EEG (EEGintraop ) in cognitive risk stratification remains to be explored. We investigated similarities between EEGsleep and EEGintraop vis-a-vis preoperative cognitive impairments.
Methods: Pilot study including 27 patients (63 year old [53.5, 70.0]) to whom Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) and EEGsleep were administered 1 day before a propofol-based general anaesthesia, in addition to EEGintraop acquisition from depth-of-anaesthesia monitors. Sleep spindles on EEGsleep and intraoperative alpha-band power on EEGintraop were particularly explored.
Results: In total, 11 (41%) patients had a MoCA <25 points. These patients had a significantly lower sleep spindle power on EEGsleep (25 vs. 40 μv2 /Hz, p = .035) and had a weaker intraoperative alpha-band power on EEGintraop (85 vs. 150 μv2 /Hz, p = .001) compared to patients with normal MoCA. Correlation between sleep spindle and intraoperative alpha-band power was positive and significant (r = 0.544, p = .003).
Conclusion: Preoperative cognitive impairment appears to be detectable by both EEGsleep and EEGintraop . Preoperative sleep EEG to assess perioperative cognitive risk is feasible but more data are needed to demonstrate its benefit compared to intraoperative EEG.
Keywords: MoCA; cognitive function; general anaesthesia; intraoperative alpha-band band; sleep spindles.
© 2023 The Authors. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation.