ABSTRACT
Objective To study postoperative delirium in elderly patients.Methods We investigate the morbidity of postoperative delirium in 142 elderly patients (≥ 60 years)after gastrointestinal surgery by using Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) and Delirium Rating Scale Revised-98 (DRS-R98) scores.Data were analyzed using Student's t test and Chi-squaretest respectively with SPSS 19.0.Results Of 142 patients,delirium was diagnosed in 36 patients(25.4％),delirium developed in 4,7,17,7,1 patients in posto perative 1,2,3,4-7,7 + days respectively.There were significant difference in hospital stay:17.7 ± 2.6 days (postoperative delirium) and 13.4 ± 2.3 days (no postoperative delirium),t =4.608,P =0.000 1.The postoperative complications (52.8％ / 23.6％,x2 =10.710,P =0.001) and ICU admission (22.2％/6.6％,x2 =6.939,P =0.008) significantly increased.Conclusions Postoperative delirium is recognized as one of the most common surgical complications in elderly patients with gastrointestinal surgery leading to other major postoperative complications,and prolonged hospitalization.