Determining the incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly patients who undergo orthopaedic surgical interventions in Turkey.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly patients having undergone orthopaedic surgical interventions. METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted at the traumatology clinic of GATA Haydarpasa Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey, from April 2014 to April 2015 and comprised patients who underwent orthopaedic surgical interventions. The subjects included were aged >65 years, had no mental disorders, no acute cerebrovascular disease, no known history of delirium and/or dementia. Data was collected using a self-generated questionnaire, mini mental state examination and delirium rating scale. SPSS 18 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Of the 60 participants, 39(65%) were female and 21(35%) were male. The overall mean age was 77.07±8.66 years. Besides, 22(36.7%) patients hadmoderate cognitive impairment preoperatively, and 51(85%) had no delirium postoperatively while 9(15%) had delirium. CONCLUSIONS: Degree of cognitive impairment,advanced age and type of surgery were determined to be risk factors for delirium.