Enhanced Continuity of Postoperative care for Older persons in their Neurocognitive recovery after cardiac surgery: the ECPON project

The society is ageing and advantages in anesthesia and surgery allows more complex interventions in older persons.

Old age is a significant risk factors for the development of postoperative neurocognitive decline characterized by a gradual decrease in performance in several cognitive domains such as memory, attention, information processing and executive functions, leading to problems with performing daily activities and maintaining independence and postoperative complications.

The purpose is to measure older persons’ postoperative neurocognitive function, to detect neurocognitive decline, and to identify risk factors and difficulties in daily living as well as explore close relatives’ experiences of it.A longitudinal observational mixed method study including 200 participants ≥65-years of age undergoing planned cardiac surgery in two different Thoracic surgery departments.

Neurocognitive function will be assessed with a digital neurocognitive test battery, seven times over three years postoperatively.

Risk/affected factors such as delirium, functional status, recovery, health literacy depression, unplanned healthcare visits and frailty as well as patients and close relative’s symptom burden experiences will be measured.The results will have immediate relevance for a substantial number of older persons undergoing surgery, and their close relatives, by enhanced knowledge about postoperative cognitive decline/recovery and support to be implemented