Abstract
Background: Delirium is a common but often underdiagnosed set of transient symptoms often seen in elderly patients following surgeries under spinal anesthesia. With early recognition and diagnosis based on the established standard criteria delirium can be improved. Early identification of the possible contributingfactors and the magnitude of the burden will help in the management of the fragile elderly patients. The aim of this study is to determine the incidence of postoperative delirium and associated risk factors in elderly patients who have done surgery under spinal anesthesia. Method: This cross sectional study was conducted in the National Referral Hospitals and Sembel PrivateHospital, in Asmara, Eritrea from February to May, 2019. The study participants were elderly patients (age ≥65 years) having no known history of dementia or delirium or no mental disorder, no history of acute cerebrovascular disease. Basic background and clinical characteristics of the patients was collected. To assess the status of cognitive impairment level, the Mini Mental State Examination and Confusion Assessment Method tools were used. Data was collected through an interview method. After the data was entered into SPSS version 22 software, data was analyzed with frequency, percentage, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis method as appropriate. P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the participants was 74 ±6.62 and 102 (79.1%) of the participants were males. POD occurred in 14 (10.9%) of the patients. Adjusting all the potential factors, age was identified as arisk factor for developing POD. Conclusion: Age was determined to be a significant risk factor of delirium. Elderly patients require more attention and care and the findings might help to develop preventive strategies to the occurrence of POD
Highlights
Delirium is a common but often underdiagnosed set of transient symptoms often seen in elderly patients following surgeries under spinal anesthesia
Adjusting all the potential factors, age was identified as arisk factor for developing POD
This study is the first of its nature conducted in Eritrea which is envisioned to address the impact of spinal anesthesia on postoperative delirium in elderly patients in the major Eritrean Hospitals
Summary
Delirium is a common but often underdiagnosed set of transient symptoms often seen in elderly patients following surgeries under spinal anesthesia. Multiple risk factors for POD have been documented, including cognitive and functional impairment, polypharmacy and multiple comorbidities [4, 5]. It is one of the most common complications following anesthesia and surgery especially in elderly patients usually occurring one up to three days postoperatively [3, 6, 7].
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