Population aging has induced in the last year a corresponding aging inside the surgical population, currently accounting for 45%.50% of the total surgical population in the majority of the advanced countries. This has induced a number of new challenges in the daily anesthesia practice, ranging from the need of implementing specific education in the field of geriatric medicine, organizational adjustments aimed to adapt our preoperative evaluation methodology to the needs older patients present, and a careful redesign of the whole perioperative course for these patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPostoperative delirium (POD) remains a common, dangerous and resource-consuming adverse event but is often preventable. The whole peri-operative team can play a key role in its management. This update to the 2017 ESAIC Guideline on the prevention of POD is evidence-based and consensus-based and considers the literature between 01 April 2015, and 28 February 2022.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere has been an increase in surgical interventions in frailer elderly with concomitant chronic diseases. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the impact of aging and comorbidities on outcomes in patients who underwent surgery for the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC) in Veneto Region (Northeastern Italy). This is a retrospective cohort study in patients ≥ 40 years who underwent elective or urgent CRC surgical resection between January 2013 and December 2015.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe article Perioperative Management of Elderly patients (PriME).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Surgical outcomes in geriatric patients may be complicated by factors such as multiple comorbidities, low functional performance, frailty, reduced homeostatic capacity, and cognitive impairment. An integrated multidisciplinary approach to management is, therefore, essential in this population, but at present, the use of such an approach is uncommon. The Perioperative Management of Elderly patients (PriME) project has been established to address this issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: In this survey, we assessed the current clinical management of postoperative delirium (POD) among Chinese anesthesiologists, after publishing the European POD guideline.
Methods: We administered an electronic survey, designed according to the European POD guideline. The survey was completed using mobile devices.
Background: Postoperative delirium (POD) is a severe brain dysfunction. Although data indicate a high relevance, no survey has investigated the routine practice to monitor delirium outside the ICU setting after surgery. Prior to publishing of the new European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) guidelines on POD, an international survey was conducted to assess current practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: The purpose of this update of the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA) guidelines on the pre-operative evaluation of the adult undergoing noncardiac surgery is to present recommendations based on the available relevant clinical evidence. Well performed randomised studies on the topic are limited and therefore many recommendations rely to a large extent on expert opinion and may need to be adapted specifically to the healthcare systems of individual countries. This article aims to provide an overview of current knowledge on the subject with an assessment of the quality of the evidence in order to allow anaesthesiologists all over Europe to integrate - wherever possible - this knowledge into daily patient care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAging Clin Exp Res
March 2018
Universally recognized goals of preoperative anesthesia assessment are the evaluation of patient's health status to define the entity of the surgical risk, and the anticipation of possible complications while optimizing and planning preventive strategies. Data obtained by Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) and frailty evaluation are of extreme usefulness in surgical risk evaluation in older patients and in the decision about surgery. It is from the team-based discussion of such results that the most appropriate treatment can be individuated, surgery invasiveness and duration critically analyzed and if needed modified, and the best perioperative strategy carefully tailored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPostoperative delirium (POD) is an adverse clinical outcome characterized by cognitive, affective and behavioral symptoms with typically an acute onset and a fluctuating course. POD is attributed to certain patients' predisposing factors as well as to treatment-related precipitating factors. While there are several single-component interventions for the prevention of POD, evolving evidence suggests the importance of a system approach in the prevention of POD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonaldi Arch Chest Dis
July 2017
Postoperative delirium (POD) is an acute organic cerebral disturbance of consciousness and attention in combination with additional cognitive symptoms. It usually develops shortly after surgery and lasts for some hours up to some days. It worsens clinical outcomes, prolongs the hospital stay and leads to negative trajectories of cognitive, emotional and functional outcomes up to month if not years after surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this guideline is to present evidence-based and consensus-based recommendations for the prevention and treatment of postoperative delirium. The cornerstones of the guideline are the preoperative identification and handling of patients at risk, adequate intraoperative care, postoperative detection of delirium and management of delirious patients. The scope of this guideline is not to cover ICU delirium.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs the number of ambulatory surgery procedures continues to grow in an aging global society, the implementation of evidence-based perioperative care programs for the elderly will assume increased importance. Given the recent advances in anesthesia, surgery, and monitoring technology, the ambulatory setting offers potential advantages for elderly patients undergoing elective surgery. In this review article we summarize the physiologic and pharmacologic effects of aging and their influence on anesthetic drugs, the important considerations in the preoperative evaluation of elderly outpatients with coexisting diseases, the advantages and disadvantages of different anesthetic techniques on a procedural-specific basis, and offer recommendations regarding the management of common postoperative side effects (including delirium and cognitive dysfunction, fatigue, dizziness, pain, and gastrointestinal dysfunction) after ambulatory surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: Epidemiological data show a continuous expansion of elderly population, associated with an increased demand for surgical treatments by older patients. Geriatric anaesthesia is emerging as a new subspecialty. Outpatient anaesthesia for elderly patients requires greater specific knowledge and skills.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: After myorelaxants, myalgia and residual curarization may complicate recovery. Local anaesthesia and minimally invasive airway management make myorelaxants disputable in many outpatient procedures; nevertheless, neuromuscular blockade may be necessary to facilitate intubation or maintain muscle relaxation. Agent selection criteria are discussed.
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