Abstract
Background: Postoperative delirium (POD) among older patients is a common, serious disease and is associated with a high incidence of negative outcomes. For early detection of POD and subsyndromal delirium (SSD), this study was conducted to identify risk factors of POD and SSD in older patients who were scheduled for surgery in a surgical ward.Methods: This was a prospective observational study. Study participants were older than 65 years, underwent urology surgery, and were hospitalized in the surgical ward between April and September 2019. Both POD and SSD were assessed by using the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) on the preoperative day, the day of surgery, and postoperative days 1–3 by the surgical ward nurses. SSD was defined as the presence of one or more CAM criteria and the absence of a diagnosis of delirium based on the CAM algorithm. Personal characteristics, clinical data, cognitive function, physical functions, laboratory test results, medication use, type of surgery and anesthesia, and use of physical restraint were collected from medical records. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the risk factors for POD and SSD.Results: A total of 101 participants (mean age 74.9 years) were enrolled; 19 (18.8%) developed POD and SSD. The use of bed sensors (odds ratio 10.2, p=.001) were identified as risk factors for POD and SSD.Conclusions: Our study shows that the use of bed sensors might be related to the development of POD and SSD among older patients in surgical wards.