Clinical Research Directory

Reducing Delirium After CABG Surgery With Early Activation and Sleep-Promoting Routines

The goal of this randomized-controlled trial (RCT) is to compare the effectiveness of the DREAMS-OT intervention with standard care in reducing post-Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery delirium in patients undergoing CABG surgery. The aims of the study are: 1. To determine if early and intensive OT will lower the incidence of post-op delirium in CABG patients compared to standard are. 2. To determine the cost effectiveness of the DREAMS-OT intervention. The study team will compare intervention group and standard care group (control group) to see if there is a reduction in the incidence of delirium in patients 5 days post-CABG.

Transcranial Doppler as a Predictor of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction Following Cardiopulmonary Bypass

Neurological dysfunction either transient or permanent is a major cause of morbidity and mortality after cardiopulmonary bypass, and cognitive dysfunction is more frequent in cardiac surgery than in non-cardiac procedures. Variations in cerebral blood flow and oxygen extraction are considered key contributing factors. Although pulsatile flow during bypass has shown benefits for renal function and recovery, its effects on postoperative neurological dysfunction and delirium remain unclear due to limited research. This study aims to evaluate the impact of pulsatile versus non-pulsatile cardiopulmonary bypass flow on POCD in adult CABG patients by measuring middle cerebral artery (MCA) flow using transcranial Doppler.

Sleep and Circadian Rhythm Biomarkers of Postoperative Delirium

The goal of this prospective cohort study is to assess potential differences in sleep biomarkers in older adult patients undergoing major orthopedic surgery. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. To define sleep/circadian biomarkers of delirium (sleep duration, regularity, stability and timing of rhythm) in a prospective observational study. 2. To determine if plasma Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology/inflammatory burden interacts with or moderates the relationship between a sleep/circadian biomarker and post-operative delirium (POD) risk. 3. To determine whether sleep/circadian regulation interacts with the genetic risk of AD to influence POD/cognitive decline. Participants will be asked to: 1. Donate several blood samples both intraoperatively and postoperatively 2. Complete baseline and postoperative neurocognitive assessments 3. Wear an actigraphy data collection watch for the two weeks prior to their surgery

Audio-Recorded Messages Delivered Via iPad to Prevent Delirium in Hip Fracture Patients

The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn if personalized audio-recorded reorientation messages can be successfully implemented in general hospital wards for elderly patients after hip fracture surgery. It will also explore whether this intervention might help prevent confusion (delirium) after surgery. The main questions it aims to answer are: * Can the intervention be successfully delivered by nursing staff in a busy orthopedic ward? * How many eligible patients can be recruited and retained in the study? * Do patients tolerate listening to the personalized audio messages without problems? * Does listening to personalized audio messages show any early signs of reducing confusion after surgery? Researchers will compare patients who receive personalized audio messages to those who receive usual care to see if the intervention is feasible to implement and whether it shows promise for preventing delirium. Participants will: * Listen to 2-minute personalized audio-recorded reorientation messages played through an iPad and headphones three times daily for the first 3 days after surgery * Have their orientation and mental status checked daily for three times by nursing staff * Continue with all their regular medical care and treatments * Be monitored until discharge from the study wards.

Depth of Anesthesia on Postoperative Delirium and Cognitive After Surgery

The goal of this clinical trial (Balanced-2 study) is to compare light to deep general anesthesia using widely available brain monitors, to see if 'light' anesthesia could reduce rates of delirium, cognitive decline, and disability in older adults undergoing major surgery. Delirium is the most common serious surgical complication, occurring in an estimated one in four older adults undergoing major surgery. Delirium causes significant distress to patients and family, and is associated with prolonged hospital stay, physical disability, progression to dementia-like illnesses, and discharge to long-term care. Between 10 - 30% of adults aged 70 years and above have surgery every year, and preserving brain health and wellbeing is an important priority during this time. Older adults (aged ≥65 years, or Indigenous, Pacific patients aged ≥55 years) undergoing major surgery with general anesthesia (excluding heart and brain surgery) and able to provide consent will be able to participate. Participants will be randomized to two groups - a lighter general anesthesia group and a deeper general anesthesia group using processed electroencephalography (a brain monitor that provides information on depth of anesthesia using brain waves). The anesthesiologist will titrate anesthetic drugs according to the brain monitor. Participants will be followed up to determine if they experience delirium after surgery, and longer term impact of delirium such as cognitive and physical decline will also be measured. If found to be effect, this simple, cheap, and widely available treatment could reduce disability, preserve brain health and wellbeing of many older adults undergoing surgery worldwide, and save millions in healthcare dollars.

Effect of Low-dose EsketaMine on dElirium in High-risk Elderly Patients uNdergoing elecTive Surgery (ELEMENT)

Delirium is an acutely occurred neurocognitive disorder characterized by fluctuating symptoms of inattention, altered consciousness and cognitive dysfunction. Delirium is reported to occur in 4% to 65% of postoperative patients depending on the population, and is especially common in older patients. Postoperative delirium is disturbing to patients and their families, and it is a strong predictor of both early and long-term worse outcomes including increased non-delirium complications, increased perioperative mortality, shortened overall survival, declined cognitive function, and lowered quality of life. Although ketamine/esketamine has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects, evidence on its efficacy in reducing postoperative delirium remains inconsistent and inconclusive. Existing studies are limited by heterogeneity, small sample sizes, single-center designs, and a focus on specific type of surgery. Research on elderly high-risk patients is lacking, and most studies administer the drug intraoperatively, with limited exploration of postoperative use. The optimal dosing and timing for POD prevention are unclear. This study aims to carry out a multicenter, single-blind, placebo-controlled, large-sample randomized controlled trial assessing the effect of low-dose esketamine, given intraoperatively and postoperatively, on delirium in elderly high-risk patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery.

The Impact of Smoking on the Prognosis of Elderly Surgical Patients

Postoperative delirium is a common complication that frequently occurs in elderly patients after surgery. It not only increases the length of hospital stays and healthcare costs but also raises the incidence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction and even mortality. However, the underlying mechanisms of its onset are not yet fully understood. Evidence suggests that smoking can lead to gut microbiota dysbiosis and metabolic dysfunction, and the gut microbiota and its metabolites play a crucial role in cognitive function through the gut-brain axis. Yet, no studies have reported whether smoking could affect the occurrence of postoperative delirium and the quality of postoperative recovery through the gut microbiota. This study aims to observe the incidence of postoperative delirium and the postoperative recovery quality scores between smokers and non-smokers.

Liraglutide in Preventing Delirium in Diabetic Elderly After Cardiac Surgery

This study aims to clarify the preventive effect of perioperative liraglutide application on postoperative delirium in elderly patients with Type 2 diabetes undergoing cardiac surgery.

The SCOPE Trial: Sleep, Cognition, and Pain Bundle Vs. ERAS-cardiac for Postoperative Delirium

Sleep disturbances, cognitive reserve, and continuing pain and inflammation are other risk factors contributing to delirium (confusion and agitation) and neurocognitive decline (in the long term) following heart surgery. Investigators aim to test a bundle of sleep optimization, cognitive exercise before surgery, and extended pain relief for 48 hours with intravenous acetaminophen combined with enhanced recovery after surgery protocols (SCOPE bundle). SCOPE will fill significant gaps in evidence by testing the value of a patient and care-provider-focused intervention that can potentially minimize POD and improve outcomes (cognitive \& physical function, sleep quality, pain, depression or anxiety, and survival) important to patients and families. The SCOPE trial will address many heart surgery outcome-related questions commonly asked by patients: What can I do to reduce my chances of developing confusion, hallucinations, or delirium after surgery? How can I best prepare before surgery to improve my long-term health and avoid disability? Are there exercises I can participate in that improve my sleep, pain, and mood after surgery? Intellectual pursuits, physical activity, and social interactions support cognitive reserve, while poor health, poor sleep hygiene, poor nutrition, and mental health disease can diminish reserve. Various interventions with different intensities and timing to augment cognitive reserve have been associated with positive outcomes on neuropsychological testing. Adaptive video gaming for as little as 10 hours leads to the maintenance of independence in activities of daily living and sustained improvements in speed of processing, attention, and working memory in older people. Likely through the increased cognitive reserve, perioperative brain exercise aims to protect against morbid cognitive recovery after surgery. Sleep is vital for memory and cognitive function. Poor sleep traits in older adults that are potentially modifiable, including short/long duration, daytime napping, and associated sleepiness, led to an almost 2-fold increase in delirium risk. Patients will complete an evidence-based course on healthy sleep habits and will complete guided exercises designed to restructure behaviors and thinking. They are encouraged to follow a set of recommendations to improve their sleep (e.g., optimal sleep duration, advice for habits such as daytime napping, maintaining a regular sleep schedule, avoiding caffeine, regular daylight exposure, dimming lights or electronics and relaxation and thought exercises for optimal sleep); many of these sleep behaviors have been strongly linked to increased risk for cognitive decline. Investigators propose that sleep optimization before AND after (an established best practice sleep bundle) surgical insult will contribute to cognitive reserve leading to decreased delirium risk and key patient-centered outcomes (postoperative sleep, pain, cognition, mood, and survival). Inadequate pain relief and opioids are both risk factors for delirium. Surgery on the chest is a significant pain source. Approximately 30-75% of patients suffer from moderate to severe pain in the postoperative period. Almost half of the patients have severe pain at rest, and three-quarters have severe pain during coughing and movement. Pain and inflammation are closely biochemically linked. Sleep, brain exercise, and adequate pain control with opioid-sparing can be additive or synergistic interventions to prevent delirium following heart surgery. Investigators propose three specific aims by conducting a 1:1 randomized controlled trial in 406 heart surgery patients 60 or older undergoing heart surgery. They will be administered perioperative sleep optimization, brain exercise training, and intravenous acetaminophen over 48 hours. A trained expert will administer the sleep and cognitive exercise protocols at least two weeks before surgery. This expert will handhold the patients for two weeks until the surgery. Thus, the gains made before surgery with better sleep quality and improved brain reserve will be sustained with postoperative pain control to lower the ongoing inflammation. Through this trial, investigators will evaluate if the SCOPE bundle can reduce 1) in-hospital delirium, 2) long-term (one, six, and twelve months) cognitive, physical, and self-care function, and 3) barriers to implementation of this bundle. Currently, no options are routinely available to patients to optimize their sleep and cognition before cardiac surgery. The proposed research is significant because it will be the first to test the bundled behavioral intervention approach (sleep optimization, brain exercise) before surgery with extended, scheduled pain management with non-opioids following surgery. The SCOPE trial will yield relevant and immediately actionable data to improve care for over 900,000 adults in the U.S. each year.

Impact of Sleep Quality on Outcomes After Cardiac Surgery

Sleep is a basic human need and is essential for good quality of life, good health. In fact, humans spend one third of their life time in sleeping or attempting to do so. However, sleep is not given due importance in intensive care unit (ICU)'s, although it is critical in healing process. Patient's usually get admitted to the hospital few days prior to the surgery, for complete evaluation, depending on the procedure planned. Hospital environment being, an entirely new place for inpatients, will invariably affect their sleep. Sleep deprivation is one of the major sources of anxiety and stress in all the patients during ICU stay. This means that most of patients are sleep deprived, by the time they are admitted to ICU. The negative effects of sleep deprivation include postoperative brain dysfunction like inattention, restlessness, hallucinations, agitation, aggressiveness. The degree of cognitive impairment may range from subtle derangements in attention, reason, clarity of thought and capacity of decision making to confusion and delirium. Sleep deprivation can also induce hypertension, fatigue, metabolic disorders, cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease

Modulating Surgery-Induced Blood-Brain Barrier Disruption in Elderly

Postoperative delirium (POD) is the most common complications (\~50-60%) in elderly and major challenges to our rapidly growing aging population. Growing evidence suggests a possible role for neuroinflammation in the development of delirium, which is facilitated by a transient increase in blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability. Lidocaine and dexmedetomidine, commonly used anesthetic adjuncts, have anti-inflammatory properties. Both drugs are reported to have modulatory effect on the intergrity of BBB and associated with a beneficial effect on postoperative neurocognitive dysfunction. In this regard, The investigators aimed to prospectively compare the modulatory effect of the intraoperative administration of dexmedetomidine or lidocaine with a sham control group (normal saline solution) on surgery-induced BBB disruption.

Effect of Percutaneous Acupoint Electrical Stimulation on Delirium

This study is a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial that aims to observe the impact of Transcutaneous Electrical Acupoint Stimulation (TEAS) on plasma TK/MMP3 in a randomized controlled setting. The intervention group received percutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation, whereas the control group underwent conventional treatment. The primary objective is to enhance the management of postoperative delirium, specifically focusing on the occurrence and severity of delirium following thoracoscopic pulmonary resection. Additionally, various perioperative inflammatory markers, cognitive function, recovery quality, pain levels, anxiety, sleep patterns, postoperative complications, and overall hospital stay duration were monitored to elucidate the mechanisms through which percutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation improves postoperative delirium.

Transcutaneous Acupoint Electrical Stimulation and Postoperative Delirium Delirium

Investigating postoperative delirium in patients undergoing thoracoscopic lung resection surgery who have received or not received relevant transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation treatment preoperatively, observing postoperative recovery quality indicators, evaluating the necessity of treatment, and clarifying the potential mechanisms by which transcutaneous acupoint electrical stimulation may improve postoperative delirium.

The Effect of Listening to Holy Quran Recital on the Incidence of Delirium Post-CABG

This study is planned to check the effect of holy Quran recital on the development of delirium after conronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG). Different studies have been done before about the effects of non-pharmacological intervention on delirium after CABG, howvere, none was designed specifically to check the effect of Holy Qoyran on this outcome.