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GeNeDis 2016 pp 301–312Cite as

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

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Part of the book series: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology ((AEMB,volume 987))

Abstract

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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. General Hospital of Sparti, Sparti, 23100, Greece

    Christina Florou, Dimitrios Theofilopoulos, Styliani Tziaferi & Maria Chania

Authors
  1. Christina Florou
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  2. Dimitrios Theofilopoulos
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  4. Maria Chania
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Correspondence to Dimitrios Theofilopoulos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, Bioinformatics and Human Electrophysiology Laboratory, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece

    Panayiotis Vlamos

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Florou, C., Theofilopoulos, D., Tziaferi, S., Chania, M. (2017). Post-Operative Delirium in Elderly People Diagnostic and Management Issues of Post-Operative Delirium in Elderly People. In: Vlamos, P. (eds) GeNeDis 2016. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 987. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57379-3_27

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