Life is most delightful when it is on the downward slope, but has not yet reached the abrupt decline.
– Seneca
We have all encountered geriatric patients amid or on the precipice of an “abrupt decline” in health. Our aim as physicians and as a health care community is to not only extend those late-life years but also the quality of those years. Postoperative delirium may certainly incite an abrupt decline in a geriatric surgical patient and deserves our prioritized focus. This is a very common and potentially devastating, yet possibly preventable, postsurgical complication in older patients. Speed and quality of convalescence in geriatric surgical patients is multifactorial, and we have the ability to positively influence key contributors, including premedication, pain management, anesthetic management, and immediate postoperative care.
Recently, evaluation of practice trends and perceptions toward postoperative delirium by anesthesiologists revealed that, despite having more information to guide us...
