Best Practices for Postoperative Brain Health: Recommendations From the Fifth International Perioperative Neurotoxicity Working Group

As part of the American Society of Anesthesiology Brain Health Initiative goal of improving perioperative brain health for older patients, over 30 experts met at the fifth International Perioperative Neurotoxicity Workshop in San Francisco, CA, in May 2016, to discuss best practices for optimizing perioperative brain health in older adults (ie, >65 years of age). The objective of this workshop was to discuss and develop consensus solutions to improve patient management and outcomes and to discuss what older adults should be told (and by whom) about postoperative brain health risks. Thus, the workshop was provider and patient oriented as well as solution focused rather than etiology focused. For those areas in which we determined that there were limited evidence-based recommendations, we identified knowledge gaps and the types of scientific knowledge and investigations needed to direct future best practice. Because concerns about perioperative neurocognitive injury in pediatric patients are already being addressed by the SmartTots initiative, our workshop discussion (and thus this article) focuses specifically on perioperative cognition in older adults. The 2 main perioperative cognitive disorders that have been studied to date are postoperative delirium and cognitive dysfunction. Postoperative delirium is a syndrome of fluctuating changes in attention and level of consciousness that occurs in 20%–40% of patients >60 years of age after major surgery and inpatient hospitalization. Many older surgical patients also develop postoperative cognitive deficits that typically last for weeks to months, thus referred to as postoperative cognitive dysfunction. Because of the heterogeneity of different tools and thresholds used to assess and define these disorders at varying points in time after anesthesia and surgery, a recent article has proposed a new recommended nomenclature for these perioperative neurocognitive disorders. Our discussion about this topic was organized around 4 key issues: preprocedure consent, preoperative cognitive assessment, intraoperative management, and postoperative follow-up. These 4 issues also form the structure of this document. Multiple viewpoints were presented by participants and discussed at this in-person meeting, and the overall group consensus from these discussions was then drafted by a smaller writing group (the 6 primary authors of this article) into this manuscript. Of course, further studies have appeared since the workshop, which the writing group has incorporated where appropriate. All participants from this in-person meeting then had the opportunity to review, edit, and approve this final manuscript; 1 participant did not approve the final manuscript and asked for his/her name to be removed. Accepted for publication August 27, 2018. Funding: This workshop was sponsored by the American Society of Anesthesiology Brain Health Initiative, the Society for Neuroscience in Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Baxter, and Pfizer. M.B. acknowledges receiving private consulting income from a legal case regarding postoperative cognitive function in an older adult and material support (ie, monitors) from Masimo for a research study. C.H.B. has consulted for and has a data share agreement with Medtronic. M.B. acknowledges support from National Institute on Aging (NIA) K76 AG057020 (and additional support from R03-AG050918 and P30AG028716), K.J.S. from National Institutes of Health (NIH) K12 HD043488 and an Alzheimer's Association Clinician Scientist Fellowship, C.H.B. from NIA K76 AG057020, S.G.D. from NIA K23 AG048332 and the American Foundation for Aging Research, R.A.W. from NIH 2R01GM101698, and R.G.E. from National Institute of General Medical Sciences P01 55876. All collaborators participated in the Best Practices Discussion at the 2016 International Perioperative Neurotoxicity Working Group meeting and helped edit the manuscript. The 2016 Perioperative Neurotoxicity Working group are also listed in Appendix. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Address correspondence to Miles Berger, MD, PhD, Anesthesiology Department, Duke University Medical Center, 4317 Duke S Orange Zone, Durham, NC 27710. Address e-mail to Miles.berger@duke.edu. © 2018 International Anesthesia Research Society

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