Post-Operative Delirium in Elderly People Diagnostic and Management Issues of Post-Operative Delirium in Elderly People.

Hippocrates a Greek physician commonly known as the Father of Medicine was the first to describe delirium, 'phrenitis', differencing it from other disorders such as melancholia and mania. Since then, it still remains a clinical problem which is not yet resolved.Postoperative delirium is a common medical problem that occurs preferentially in surgical patients aged 65 years and older. It is a true medical emergency that requires immediate professional attention and treatment. Faced by health professionals and especially nurses it is often undetected, misdiagnosed, and under-treated as a complication by them during clinical care.Delaying diagnosis relates to increased mortality and morbidity and affects deleteriously the elderly patients outcome, predisposing higher postoperative complications, prolonged hospital stay, malnutrition, immobility or bed confinement, higher health care costs, possible transfers to nursing homes and there is even higher death rates within 30 days, 6 months and 1 year.There is a knowledge deficit of the predisposing and causative factors of postoperative delirium occurrence, evaluation and assessment of cognitive status and health professionals, especially nurses need to receive the necessary training and education to provide quality care for the elderly with postoperative delirium.As postoperative delirium is frequent in the geriatric patients, it is obvious that we are facing a new challenge to find the right combination for the management and treatment for optimal therapeutic outcomes.

Assessment of antibody responses in local and immigrant residents of areas with autochthonous malaria transmission in Greece.

Greece has been officially malaria free since 1974. However, from 2009 to 2012, several locally acquired, cases of Plasmodium vivax malaria were detected, in immigrants and in Greek citizens. In this study, the antibody (Ab) response of Greeks and immigrants with documented malaria was initially assessed, followed by an Ab screening of Greeks and immigrant residents of local transmission areas. Of the 38 patients tested, 10.5% of Greeks and 15.7% of immigrants were positive 5-7 months after infection. Of the 1,019 individuals from various areas of Greece, including those of autochthonous transmission, 85 of the 721 (11.8%) immigrants were positive, whereas all 298 Greeks were negative. The rapid Ab titer decline observed is reasonable, given the non-endemic epidemiological setting. The seroepidemiological findings indicate that the local Greek population remains malaria naive and that at this point Greeks are unlikely to serve as reservoir for the infection of local mosquitoes.