Two weeks ago, on Wednesday and Thursday, the ASA, in conjunction with AARP, hosted the first jointly sponsored Brain Health Initiative Summit in Washington. The summit’s goal was to encourage awareness and adoption of perioperative guidelines for care of geriatric patients and to empower patients, their families and caregivers.
This summit was designed to promote and gain insight from multigroup stakeholders, including some that you don’t normally find at the table together. In addition, and so important, there were everyday clinically practicing physicians alongside world-renowned scientists and researchers.
Facts that you may want to know:
- One-third of surgical patients are 65 or older.
- Preoperative cognitive dysfunction is associated with adverse outcomes.
- Longer length of stay; for example, 1.12 days for total joint replacement patients (Culley, Flaherty, et al. Anesthesiology. 2017; 127).
- 67% discharged other than home.
- 21% greater chance of postoperative delirium.
- 30-40% of cases with postoperative cognitive delirium are preventable.
- Simple preoperative cognitive impairment tests may identify those at risk (about 24% of those over 65 years old), and programs can be put in place to help minimize negative outcomes.
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