Background

Whether postoperative subsyndromal delirium (SSD) is a separate syndrome from delirium and has clinical relevance is not well understood.

Objectives

We sought to investigate SSD in older surgical patients and to determine its prognostic significance.

Methods

We performed a prospective cohort study of patients who were 65 years or older and were scheduled for noncardiac surgery. Postoperative delirium was determined using the Confusion Assessment Method. SSD was defined as the presence of at least one of the possible 10 symptoms of delirium, as defined by the Confusion Assessment Method, but not meeting the criteria for delirium.

Results

The number of features of SSD on the first postoperative day was associated with the subsequent development of delirium on the next day, after controlling for other risk factors. When compared with a patient with no SSD features, a patient with 1 SSD feature was 1.07 times more likely to have delirium on the next day (95% CI: 0.42-2.53), with 2 features was 3.32 times more likely to have it (95% CI: 1.42-7.57), and with ≥ 2 features was 8.37 times more likely to have it (95% CI: 4.98-14.53). Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between the number of features of SSD and increased length of hospital stay and worsened functional status at 1 month after surgery.

Conclusions

SSD is prevalent in at-risk surgical patients and has prognostic significance. Only a single symptom of SSD was sufficient to cause a significant increase in hospital length of stay and further decline in functional status. These results suggest that monitoring for SSD is indicated in at-risk patients.