Non-pharmacological Prevention of Postoperative Delirium by Occupational Therapy Teams

Summary

In the world, 230 million surgeries are performed every year and US data indicates that more than a third of patients who undergo surgery are older than 65 years, in which between 10 and 70% develop postoperative delirium (POD). Patients who develop POD have poor outcomes, such as a longer hospital stay, a deterioration in functional and cognitive status, high mortality rates, and an increase in health costs.

Delirium is an entity that in a significant percentage is preventable, thus preventing the development of POD is fundamental. In fact, in older adults hospitalized in the no surgical ward, the implementation of non-pharmacological prevention measures of delirium has consistently shown to significantly prevent the development of this condition. However, limited information is available about the usefulness of non-pharmacological intervention protocols applied in the perioperative context to prevent POD.

The main aim of this project is to determine whether the application of non-pharmacological measures during the perioperative period prevents POD in elderly patients undergoing highly complex elective surgeries.

The hypothesis is that the application of these measures decreases the incidence of delirium in this population.

Conditions

• Postoperative Delirium
• Aging Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Occupational therapy intervention

Prevention of postoperative delirium by occupational therapy intervention

BEHAVIORAL

Standard non-pharmacological prevention intervention

Prevention of postoperative delirium using standard non-pharmacological prevention measures

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospital de San Jose

  collaborator OTHER

• Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• University of Chile

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Antonello Penna, MD/PhD · University of Chile

• Evelyn Alvarez, TO/MSc · Universidad Central/Universidad de Chile

• Constanza Briceño, TO/MSc · University of Chile

• Eduardo Tobar, MD · University of Chile

• Felipe Salech, MD/PhD · University of Chile

• Daniela Ponce, Ing · University of Chile

• Veronica Rojas, Nurse/MSc · University of Chile

• Gonzalo Navarrete, MD · University of Chile

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

75 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2018-10-01

Primary Completion

2021-03-09

Completion

2021-03-09

Countries

• Chile

Study Locations