Experts recommend new description for cognitive changes after anesthesia, surgery

Editor's Note

A multidisciplinary panel of experts recommended changing the way clinicians and patients describe cognitive changes experienced after anesthesia and surgery, in this session presented October 16 at the Anesthesiology 2018 annual meeting in San Francisco.

The experts recommended that a new umbrella term, “Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorder (PND),” be used for impairment or change in cognition associated with anesthesia and surgery. They further classified PND as delirium, delayed neurocognitive recovery, and mild or major neurocognitive disorder after surgery, depending on timing, duration, and magnitude.

The recommendations will be published simultaneously in six peer-reviewed journals, including Anesthesiology and Anesthesia & Analgesia.