Quality of recovery in elderly patients with postoperative delirium

Daniela Cristelo; Mónica Nunes Ferreira; João Sarmento E Castro; Ana Rita Teles; Marta Campos; Fernando Abelha

doi:10.4103/sja.SJA_747_18

Quality of recovery in elderly patients with postoperative delirium

Saudi J Anaesth. 2019 Oct-Dec;13(4):285-289. doi: 10.4103/sja.SJA_747_18.

Authors

Daniela Cristelo¹, Mónica Nunes Ferreira², João Sarmento E Castro¹, Ana Rita Teles¹, Marta Campos¹, Fernando Abelha³

Affiliations

¹ Anaesthesiology Department, Centro Hospitalar São João.
² Anaesthesiology Department, Instituto Português de Oncologia do Porto Francisco Gentil.
³ Anaesthesiology Department, Centro Hospitalar São João, Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto.

Abstract

Background: Our study aimed to evaluate quality of recovery in elderly patients with postoperative delirium (POD).

Subjects and methods: An observational prospective study was conducted. Patients aged >60 submitted to elective surgery and admitted to Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) in a tertiary hospital from May to July 2017 were included. POD was evaluated with the Nursing Delirium Screening Scale (NuDESC). Quality of recovery-15 (QoR-15) was used before (T0) and 24 h (T24) after surgery to assess quality of recovery. Data collection include patient's characteristics, respiratory events at the PACU, and other perioperative variables. The Chi-square, Fisher's exact, or Mann-Whitney U-tests were used for comparisons.

Results: Of a total of 235 patients, 12.3% developed POD at PACU. POD was more frequently in patients older than 80 years (P = 0.017), patients with neurological disease (P = 0.026), dementia (P = 0.026), peripheral vascular disease (P = 0.016), and diabetes mellitus (P = 0.037). At T0, there were no differences at median total QoR-15, whereas at T24, patients POD scored lower in 10 items (including "severe pain" with P = 0.001 and "nausea or vomiting" with P = 0.009) of QoR-15 and in total median lower scores (P = 0.001). POD patients stayed longer at PACU (P = 0.017) and they stayed longer at hospital (P = 0.002).

Conclusions: POD patients were older and had more comorbidities. POD patients had lower QoR scores at T24 suggesting an adverse impact of delirium in postoperative quality of recovery. POD patients stayed for long in the PACU and at hospital.

Keywords: Aged; delirium; risk assessment.