Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Efficacy of preventive interventions for postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing spinal surgery: A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Authors' conclusion
Dexmedetomidine monotherapy is the only intervention supported by moderate-certainty evidence (OR = 0.35)
Study context
- Population
- Elderly patients undergoing spinal surgery
- Participants
- 3,454 patients · 32 randomized controlled trials (RCTs)
- Comparison
- 19 preventive interventions vs control for postoperative delirium (POD)
- Outcome
- POD incidence
Methodological detailsfrequentist random-effects, SUCRA ranking, 25 studies low risk of bias or some concerns (RoB 2.0)
- Frequentist random-effects
- SUCRA ranking
- 25 studies low risk of bias or some concerns (RoB 2.0)
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Temperature protection + dexmedetomidine
81.7%
SUCRA
Melatonin
70.3%
SUCRA
GDFT
63.6%
SUCRA
Each group vs controlOdds ratio (95% CI)
Temperature protection + dexmedetomidineranked most effective
0.11(0.02–0.59)
Melatonin
0.20(0.05–0.81)
GDFT
0.25(0.09–0.66)
- Interventions significantly reducing POD vs control
- 10
Original publication
Efficacy of preventive interventions for postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing spinal surgery: A network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Clin Anesth. Published 29 April 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →