Effects of Exercise Intervention for the Management of Delirium in Hospitalized Older Adults: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

OBJECTIVE: Delirium is a serious neuropsychiatric syndrome frequently occurring in hospitalized older adults, for which pharmacological treatments have shown limited effectiveness. Multicomponent physical exercise programs have demonstrated functional benefits; however, the impact of exercise on the course of delirium remains unexplored. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an individualized, multicomponent exercise intervention on the evolution of delirium and patient outcomes. DESIGN: A single-center, single-blind randomized controlled trial. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Medical inpatients with delirium in an acute geriatric unit of a tertiary public hospital. METHODS: Thirty-six patients (mean age 87 years) were recruited and randomized into 2 groups. The control group received usual care and the intervention group received individualized physical exercise (1 daily session) for 3 consecutive days. Primary endpoints were the duration and severity of delirium (4-AT, Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale) and change in functional status [Barthel Index, Short Physical Performance Battery, Hierarchical Assessment of Balance and Mobility (HABAM), and handgrip strength]. Secondary endpoints included length of stay, falls, and health outcomes at 1- and 3-month follow-up. RESULTS: The intervention group showed more functional improvement at discharge (HABAM, P = .015) and follow-up (Barthel, P = .041; Lawton P = .027). Less cognitive decline was observed at 1 and 3 months (Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly, P = .017). Exercise seemed to reduce delirium duration by 1 day and contribute to delirium resolution at discharge, although findings did not reach statistical significance. No exercise-related adverse events occurred. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Findings suggest that individualized exercise in acutely hospitalized older patients with delirium is safe, may improve delirium course and help preserve post-hospitalization function and cognition.

Association of postoperative delirium with serum and cerebrospinal fluid proteomic profiles: a prospective cohort study in older hip fracture patients.

Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common neuropsychiatric complication in geriatric inpatients after hip fracture surgery and its occurrence is associated with poor outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between preoperative biomarkers in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the development of POD in older hip fracture patients, exploring the possibility of integrating objective methods into future predictive models of delirium. Sixty hip fracture patients were recruited. Blood and CSF samples were collected at the time of spinal anesthesia when none of the subjects had delirium. Patients were assessed daily using the 4AT scale, and based on these results, they were divided into POD and non-POD groups. The Olink® platform was used to analyze 45 cytokines. Twenty-one patients (35%) developed POD. In the subsample of 30 patients on whom proteomic analyses were performed, a proteomic profile was associated with the incidence of POD. Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 9 (CXCL9) had the strongest correlation between serum and CSF samples in patients with POD (rho = 0.663; p < 0.05). Although several cytokines in serum and CSF were associated with POD after hip fracture surgery in older adults, there was a significant association with lower preoperative levels of CXCL9 in CSF and serum. Despite the small sample size, this study provides preliminary evidence of the potential role of molecular biomarkers in POD, which may provide a basis for the development of new delirium predictive models.

Reducing by 50% the incidence of maternal hypotension during elective caesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia: Effect of prophylactic ondansetron and/or continuous infusion of phenylephrine - a double-blind, randomized, placebo controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Prophylactic administrations of ondansetron or phenylephrine have been reported to provide a protective effect against hypotension in women undergoing cesarean delivery under spinal anesthesia (SA). The main hypothesis is that ondansetron improves the hemodynamic response, especially combined with phenylephrine infusion. METHODS: This prospective, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study included 265 healthy pregnant women scheduled for elective cesarean delivery under SA. Women were randomly allocated into four groups to receive either placebo (control), ondansetron (O) 8 mg intravenously before induction of SA, phenylephrine infusion (50 mcg/min) (P) or ondansetron plus phenylephrine (OP). Demographic, obstetric, intraoperative timing, and anesthetic variables were assessed at 16 time points. Anesthetic variables assessed included blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation, nausea, vomiting, electrocardiographic changes, skin flushing, discomfort or pruritus, and vasopressor requirements. RESULTS: There were differences (P = 0.0001) in the number of patients with hypotension (50.8% control, 44.6% O, 20.9% P, 25.0% OP), the percentage of time points (P = 0.0001) with systolic hypotension per patient (17.4% control, 8.7% O, 2.1% P, 6.7% OP) and the number of patients requiring supplementary boluses of ephedrine (P = 0.003), phenylephrine (P = 0.017) or atropine (P = 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: A 50 µg/min phenylephrine infusion reduces by 50%, the incidence of maternal hypotension compared with placebo, but infusions of phenylephrine are still not routine in our environment. Prophylactic ondansetron 8 mg might be considered in this situation, because it does not reduce the incidence of maternal hypotension but diminishes its severity, reducing the number of hypotensive events per patient by 50%.