Dement Neurocogn Disord.  2015 Sep;14(3):120-122. 10.12779/dnd.2015.14.3.120.

Usefulness of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly for Predicting Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients: A Pilot Study

• Park YH
• Kim KJ
• Yeom JS
• Kim S

• KMID: 2442987
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.12779/dnd.2015.14.3.120

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Preexisting cognitive impairment is the strongest risk factor for delirium. We performed a pilot study to investigate whether the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE), which is a good complement to direct cognitive testing, could be useful for predicting postoperative delirium in elderly patients.
METHODS
Between June 2013 and May 2014, 37 patients aged 70 years or older underwent the Korean version of the Mini-Mental State Examination (K-MMSE) and completed the IQCODE (IQCODE-K) before elective spine surgery in the Spine Center at the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. Delirium was assessed daily from the day after surgery until discharge. A Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the K-MMSE scores and the IQCODE-K scores between the groups with and without postoperative delirium.
RESULTS
A total of three of 37 (8.1%) patients developed delirium during their hospital stay. The K-MMSE scores were not different between the two groups (p=0.105), whereas the IQCODE-K scores of patients with delirium were significantly higher than those of patients without delirium (p=0.021), indicating greater cognitive and functional decline over the previous 10 years.
CONCLUSION
The IQCODE may be a suitable tool for assessing preoperative cognitive function and predicting postoperative delirium in elderly patients.

Keyword

delirium; surgery; aged; cognition; questionnaires

MeSH Terms

Aged*
Cognition
Complement System Proteins
Delirium*
Humans
Length of Stay
Pilot Projects*
Risk Factors
Seoul
Spine
Complement System Proteins

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Scatter plots of the cognitive profiles of patients with and without postoperative delirium. The scores of the K-MMSE (A) and IQCODE-K (B) were grouped according to whether the patient developed delirium postoperatively. The median and interquartile range of the K-MMSE scores for the groups with and without postoperative delirium were 20 (19.5-22.5) and 26.5 (23-28), respectively. The median and interquartile range of the IQCODE-K scores for the groups with and without postoperative delirium were 4.04 (3.73-4.08) and 3.21 (3.04-3.42), respectively. IQCODE-K: Korean version of the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly, K-MMSE: Korean Mini-Mental State Examination.

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