Picture this: you’re sailing on the sea of general anesthesia, and suddenly a storm called postoperative delirium (POD) hits. POD is a common complication that affects older patients after surgery. In a recent study, scientists investigated the relationship between burst suppression activity in the brain during surgery and the development of POD. Burst suppression activity is like occasional turbulent waves in our brain’s ocean. The study found that for every minute of prolonged burst suppression activity, the risk of developing POD increased by 1.1%. Interestingly, the type of anesthetic used also had an impact. Patients who received desflurane anesthesia had a 1.8 times higher risk of developing POD compared to those who received propofol anesthesia. Surprisingly, even though burst suppression was shorter under desflurane anesthesia, the risk of POD was still higher. This finding opens up new doors for understanding the relationship between different anesthetics and POD. To dive deeper into this fascinating research, check out the link below!

BackgroundPostoperative Delirium (POD) is the most frequent neurocognitive complication after general anesthesia in older patients. The development of POD is associated with prolonged periods of burst suppression activity in the intraoperative electroencephalogram (EEG). The risk to present burst suppression activity depends not only on the age of the patient but is also more frequent during propofol anesthesia as compared to inhalative anesthesia. The aim of our study is to determine, if the risk to develop POD differs depending on the anesthetic agent given and if this correlates with a longer duration of intraoperative burst suppression.MethodsIn this secondary analysis of the SuDoCo trail [ISRCTN 36437985] 1277 patients, older than 60 years undergoing general anesthesia were included. We preprocessed and analyzed the raw EEG files from each patient and evaluated the intraoperative burst suppression duration. In a logistic regression analysis, we assessed the impact of burst suppression duration and anesthetic agent used for maintenance on the risk to develop POD.Results18.7% of patients developed POD. Burst suppression duration was prolonged in POD patients (POD 27.5 min ± 21.3 min vs. NoPOD 21.4 ± 16.2 min, p < 0.001), for each minute of prolonged intraoperative burst suppression activity the risk to develop POD increased by 1.1% (OR 1.011, CI 95% 1.000–1.022, p =  0.046). Burst suppression duration was prolonged under propofol anesthesia as compared to sevoflurane and desflurane anesthesia (propofol 32.5 ± 20.3 min, sevoflurane 17.1 ± 12.6 min and desflurane 20.1 ± 16.0 min, p < 0.001). However, patients receiving desflurane anesthesia had a 1.8fold higher risk to develop POD, as compared to propofol anesthesia (OR 1.766, CI 95% 1.049–2.974, p =  0.032).ConclusionWe found a significantly increased risk to develop POD after desflurane anesthesia in older patients, even though burst suppression duration was shorter under desflurane anesthesia as compared to propofol anesthesia. Our finding might help to explain some discrepancies in studies analyzing the impact of burst suppression duration and EEG-guided anesthesia on the risk to develop POD.

Read Full Article (External Site)