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Brain Fog: Are Clearer Skies on the Horizon? A Review of Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorders

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Part of the book series: Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine ((AUICEM))

Abstract

Postoperative cognitive decline is a complication in which a typically elderly surgical patient inadvertently substitutes one illness for another. The change in cognitive performance can be defined by postoperative deterioration in completing neuropsychological tests and requires preoperative testing and testing after the surgical intervention. Unlike postoperative delirium, an acute onset of cognitive impairment in which no preoperative testing is required to make the postoperative diagnosis, postoperative cognitive decline is defined by a significant deterioration from the patient’s preoperative capabilities. As formal preoperative neurocognitive testing is not the current standard of clinical care, postoperative cognitive decline and its sequelae, are currently under-reported [1].

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Saxena, S., Joosten, A., Maze, M. (2019). Brain Fog: Are Clearer Skies on the Horizon? A Review of Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorders. In: Vincent, JL. (eds) Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine 2019. Annual Update in Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06067-1_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06067-1_33

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-06066-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-06067-1

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