Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Postoperative Delirium and the Association to Continuously Monitored Severe Deviations of Vital Signs at the General Ward After Major Abdominal Surgery
Authors' conclusion
Although the cumulative duration of severe vital sign deviations did not differ between POD patients and controls, episodes of sustained severe vital sign deviations were significantly more frequent in POD patients before and after POD diagnosis, suggesting a potential for earlier identification of patients at risk. Whether acting on these signals alters the incidence of delirium was not tested and requires a prospective study.
Study context
- Population
- Patients undergoing major abdominal cancer surgery, monitored on the general ward during the first postoperative dayspatients with complete 3D-CAM data
- Participants
- 225 patients
- Comparison
- Severe vital sign deviations in postoperative delirium (POD) patients and neurocognitive decline (NCD) patients compared with controls
- PODn = 22
- NCDn = 73
- Controlsn = 130
- Primary endpoint
- Postoperative delirium (primary outcome) by cumulative duration of severely deviating vital signs 24 h before POD diagnosis (primary exposure)
- Follow-up
- 24 h prior to POD diagnosis
Methodological detailscontinuous wireless monitoring, secondary analysis of a prospectively assessed high risk surgical cohort
- Continuous wireless monitoring
- Secondary analysis of a prospectively assessed high risk surgical cohort
Primary result
As reported in the abstract
P = 0.63
Further findings
Cognitive outcome classification · first three postoperative days
| Outcome | P value |
|---|---|
| Episodes of sustained tachycardia, bradycardia, and bradypnea · 24 h prior to POD diagnosisPOD vs controls · more frequent in POD patients · secondary exposure | all p < 0.001 |
| Episodes of sustained tachypnea, desaturation, tachycardia, and hypertension · 24 h after POD diagnosisPOD vs controls · more frequent in POD patients | all p ≤ 0.005 |
- Cognitive outcome classification: of 225 patients with complete 3D-CAM data
Vital sign deviations in NCD patients · before and after the NCD assessment
- Deviations intermediate: bradypnea and bradycardia more frequent before, and tachycardia, hypotension, hypertension, and desaturation more frequent after the NCD assessment, compared with controls
Original publication
Postoperative Delirium and the Association to Continuously Monitored Severe Deviations of Vital Signs at the General Ward After Major Abdominal Surgery. Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. Published 6 October 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →