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Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Prevent Post-op Brain Fog in Older Patients We know who's likely to emerge from anesthesia confused and delirious. A nesthesia and surgery affect every- one differently, but there is evidence that aging brains are more vulnerable to post-operative cog- nitive decline (POCD), which may include post-opera- tive cognitive dys- function, confusion or delirium. Post-operative delirium is the most common surgical complication for older adults, but it's preventable in up to 40% of all patients. Here are 4 tips from the American Society of Anesthesiologists' Brain Health Initiative to screen for and diminish confusion after surgery. Screen for cognitive deficit. The goal is to help your geriatric patients return to their pre-op cognitive baseline. Assessing your patients' mental function not only gives you a baseline to com- pare to after surgery, it also alerts you to patients who may have mild cases of cognitive impairment. Your cognitive test can be as simple as asking 1 or 2 questions to assess the patient's mental function, or as involved as a neurocognitive test. A negative response to the question "Can you remember things you did 10 years ago?" warrants further cognitive testing. But if your 1 2 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A Y 2 0 1 8 Anesthesia Alert Lee A. Fleisher, MD • AWAKE AND ALERT Are you doing all you can to decrease elderly patients' risk for developing memory loss after surgery?

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