Benzodiazepines and postoperative delirium: should we be as cautious as we are?

Lisbeth A Evered; Kane O Pryor

doi:10.1016/j.bja.2023.07.004

Benzodiazepines and postoperative delirium: should we be as cautious as we are?

Br J Anaesth. 2023 Oct;131(4):629-631. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2023.07.004. Epub 2023 Aug 4.

Authors

Lisbeth A Evered¹, Kane O Pryor²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Critical Care, School of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Department of Anaesthesia and Acute Pain Medicine, St. Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Department of Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA. Electronic address: lae4004@med.cornell.edu.
² Department of Anesthesiology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA.

PMID: 37544837
DOI: 10.1016/j.bja.2023.07.004

Abstract

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis by Wang and colleagues in the British Journal of Anaesthesia calls into question the concept that perioperative benzodiazepine administration is associated with development of postoperative delirium in older individuals after anaesthesia and surgery. This editorial focuses on potential bias within the systematic review and addresses major concerns surrounding benzodiazepine use in the older perioperative population.

Keywords: benzodiazepines; cognition; delirium; intensive care unit; postoperative.

Publication types

Editorial
Comment

MeSH terms

Aged
Benzodiazepines / adverse effects
Delirium* / chemically induced
Emergence Delirium* / chemically induced
Humans
Postoperative Complications / chemically induced

Substances

Benzodiazepines