Regional cerebral oxygen saturation and postoperative delirium in endovascular surgery: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Delirium is an acute mental disorder and common postoperative complication. Monitoring regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO(2)) in endovascular therapeutic surgery may allow real-time monitoring of cerebral desaturation, avoiding profound cerebral dysfunction, and reducing the incidence of delirium. We sought to examine the incidence of delirium in patients undergoing endovascular surgery. METHODS: This was a clinical cohort trial (registered with http://www.clinicaltrials.gov [NCT02356133]). We monitored the rSO(2) of 43 patients undergoing general anesthesia and cerebral endovascular surgery. The occurrence of delirium after surgery was recorded with the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM). Multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify the main predictor of delirium. RESULTS: rSO(2) was significantly different between the delirium and no-delirium groups. The occurrence of delirium was 35% in our cohort, and higher rSO(2) desaturation scores were significantly associated with profound delirium (higher CAM score; odds ratio = 1.002; P = 0.021). The maximum declines of systolic blood pressure were 24.86 (21.78–27.93) and 32.98 (28.78–37.19) in the no-delirium and delirium groups, respectively, which were significantly different (P = 0.002) but not closely associated with delirium in multivariate analysis (P = 0.512). Anesthesia, mechanical ventilation duration, and having two vascular risk factors differed significantly between groups but were poorly associated with delirium outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated rSO(2) desaturation score was predictive of the occurrence of postoperative delirium following endovascular surgery. Monitoring rSO(2) is invaluable for managing controlled hypotension during endovascular surgery and reducing postoperative delirium. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02356133. Registered 1 February 2015. All statistical analysis results submitted August 4, 2018. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13063-019-3586-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.