Postoperative Delirium in Older Adults Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery

In this national retrospective cohort study of more than 5.5 million hospitalizations, older individuals undergoing major noncardiac surgery who experienced postoperative delirium had 3.5-fold higher odds of death or major complications, 2.8-fold higher odds of death, and 4.0-fold higher odds of nonhome discharge. There was substantial variation in the hospital rate of postoperative delirium after accounting for patient risk, which suggests that this complication may be an appropriate target for hospital efforts to improve perioperative brain health, provided that delirium screening and coding accuracy are improved.