Post-Bypass Delirium Predicts Increased Mortality

The two chief neurologic complications of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) — stroke and encephalopathy — remain the most serious limiting factors in the success of this common procedure. These sequelae are responsible for most short-term disabilities and deaths after CABG. These researchers prospectively studied the relation between post-CABG delirium and late out-of-hospital mortality.

Of 5034 patients who underwent CABG during a 10-year period, 304 (6%) had post-CABG delirium identified by nursing staff. (Those with both stroke and delirium after CABG were not considered to have had delirium.) After adjustments for perioperative and vascular risk factors, survival analysis demonstrated an increased hazard of death in those with …