Perioperative Gabapentin Does Not Reduce Postoperative Delirium in Older Surgical Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pain and opioid use are associated with postoperative delirium. We designed a single-center, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-arm, double-blinded trial to determine whether perioperative administration of gabapentin reduced postoperative delirium after noncardiac surgery. METHODS: Patients were randomly assigned to receive placebo (N = 347) or gabapentin 900 mg (N = 350) administered preoperatively and for the first 3 postoperative days. The primary outcome was postoperative delirium as measured by the Confusion Assessment Method. Secondary outcomes were postoperative pain, opioid use, and length of hospital stay. RESULTS: Data for 697 patients were included, with a mean ± SD age of 72 ± 6 yr. The overall incidence of postoperative delirium in any of the first 3 days was 22.4% (24.0% in the gabapentin and 20.8% in the placebo groups; the difference was 3.20%; 95% CI, 3.22% to 9.72%; P = 0.30). The incidence of delirium did not differ between the two groups when stratified by surgery type, anesthesia type, or preoperative risk status. Gabapentin was shown to be opioid sparing, with lower doses for the intervention group versus the control group. For example, the morphine equivalents for the gabapentin-treated group, median 6.7 mg (25th, 75th quartiles: 1.3, 20.0 mg), versus control group, median 6.7 mg (25th, 75th quartiles: 2.7, 24.8 mg), differed on the first postoperative day (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Although postoperative opioid use was reduced, perioperative administration of gabapentin did not result in a reduction of postoperative delirium or hospital length of stay.

Emergency physician discretion to activate the cardiac catheterization team decreases door-to-balloon time for acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The national standard for door-to-balloon time is 90 minutes, as recommended by the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology guidelines for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Percutaneous coronary intervention for STEMI was initiated at our institution in June 2004. Review of our door-to-balloon times revealed that we were not meeting this recommendation. We determine whether concurrent rather than serial activation of the cardiac catheterization personnel and interventional cardiologist by the emergency physician would improve door-to-balloon times in the community hospital setting. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective before-and-after study from June 2004 to June 2005 to evaluate this protocol change. In November 2004, a revised STEMI protocol went into effect at our community hospital that called for concurrent activation of the cardiac catheterization personnel and the interventional cardiologist by the emergency physician. No other changes were made to our protocol or personnel during this time. The mean door-to-balloon time for the 6 months before our intervention was then compared to the mean door-to-balloon time for the following 6 months. RESULTS: During the 6-month period before protocol revision, the average door-to-balloon time for the 37 STEMI patients was 147 minutes. After the protocol was revised, the average door-to-balloon time for the 51 patients in the concurrent activation group was 106 minutes, a decrease of 41 minutes (95% confidence interval 21 to 61 minutes). CONCLUSION: At our community hospital, concurrent activation of the cardiac catheterization team and the interventional cardiologist by the emergency physician significantly decreases door-to-balloon time for acute STEMI.

Preoperative Sleep Disruption and Postoperative Delirium.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To describe preoperative and postoperative sleep disruption and its relationship to postoperative delirium. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with 6 time points (3 nights pre-hospitalization and 3 nights post-surgery). SETTING: University medical center. PATIENTS: The sample consisted of 50 English-speaking patients ≥ 40 years of age scheduled for major non-cardiac surgery, with an anticipated hospital stay ≥ 3 days. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Sleep was measured before and after surgery for a total of 6 days using a wrist actigraph to quantify movement in a continuous fashion. Postoperative delirium was measured by a structured interview using the Confusion Assessment Method. Sleep variables for patients with (n = 7) and without (n = 43) postoperative delirium were compared using the unpaired Student t-tests or χ(2) tests. Repeated measures analysis of variance for the 6 days was used to examine within-subject changes over time and between group differences. The mean age of the patients was 66 ± 11 years (range 43-91 years), and it was not associated with sleep variables or postoperative delirium. The incidence of postoperative delirium observed during any of the 3 postoperative days was 14%. For the 7 patients who subsequently developed postoperative delirium, wake after sleep onset (WASO) as a percentage of total sleep time was significantly higher (44% ± 22%) during the night before surgery compared to the patients who did not subsequently developed delirium (21% ± 20%, p = 0.012). This sleep disruption continued postoperatively, and to a greater extent, for the first 2 nights after surgery. Patients with WASO < 10% did not experience postoperative delirium. Self-reported sleep disturbance did not differ between patients with vs. without postoperative delirium. CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study of adults over 40 years of age, sleep disruption was more severe before surgery in the patients who experienced postoperative delirium. A future larger study is necessary to confirm our results and determine if poor sleep is associated with delirium in larger samples and what specific sleep problems best predict postoperative delirium in older surgical patients.