The Nomenclature Consensus Working Group developed updated terminology to describe cognitive changes associated with anesthesia before and after surgery.
The working group, which consists of more than 40 world experts in anesthesia, neurology, psychiatry, gerontology and neuropsychiatry, identified a need for a formal classification and consistency due to increasing numbers of older adults undergoing anesthesia and surgery.
Anesthesia & Analgesia and five other international specialty journals published the new terminology.
Here are the updated terms and definitions:
1. Perioperative neurocognitive disorders: Cognitive impairment identified either before or after surgery
2. Pre-existing cognitive impairment: Patients with subtle but measurable cognitive impairment before surgery
3. Postoperative delirium: Anesthesia and surgery as a "potential precipitating cause" of delirium up to one week after surgery, or while the patient remains hospitalized
4. Delayed neurocognitive recovery: Cognitive decline diagnosed up to 30 days after surgery
5. Postoperative neurocognitive disorder: Cognitive decline that is still present up to 12 months after surgery