Postoperative delirium: diagnostic evaluation and treatment

BACKGROUND Postoperative delirium (POD) is an acute, transient and fluctuating disturbance of consciousness that occurs shortly after surgery. Its clinical importance is high, since it increases mortality, length of stay, institutionalization, and it is related to poor prognosis. AIM OF THE REVIEW The aim of this short review is to describe the epidemiology of POD, to assess risk factors of POD, to define the diagnosis and to focus on the possible pharmacologic and non pharmacologic therapies.