Delirium and Cortical Complexity: Divergent Changes in Alpha and Theta Bands

Summary: Delirium is associated with a decrease in cortical complexity as measured by Lempil-Ziv Complexity (LZC), showing reduced brain information processing with increasing delirium severity. The negative correlation between LZC and delirium severity was observed widely across the scalp, while LZC normalized to a phase-shuffled distribution showed weaker correlations primarily in midline posterior regions. The study suggests that peripheral inflammation, as represented by monocyte chemoattractant protein-1, does not fully explain the decreased cortical complexity associated with delirium, indicating additional pathogenic mechanisms may be at play.

Summary: A mouse model was used to study postoperative delirium, revealing that inflammation leads to increased cortical slow wave activity and cytokine levels, consistent with observations in patients. This suggests that prostaglandin-adenosine signaling may be associated with the occurrence of delirium.

Summary: The trial did not find evidence to support the hypothesis that intraoperative caffeine would reduce early postoperative opioid consumption. However, caffeine was well tolerated during anesthetic emergence.