Target-Controlled Anesthesia Reduces Postoperative Delirium in Spinal Surgical Patients: A Prospective Pilot Study

The aim of this pilot study was to examine the effect of combined target-controlled anesthesia and manually controlled anesthesia on the incidence of postoperative delirium (POD) in patients undergoing spinal surgery. All of the patients were enrolled before spinal surgery and divided into 2 groups at random: one group received combined sevoflurane target-controlled inhalation and sufentanil target-controlled infusion (S-S TCI group), whereas the other received combined manually controlled sevoflurane inhalation and sufentanil infusion (S-S MCI group). Data related to preoperative factors, perioperative factors, and postoperative data were retrospectively collected. Compared with the S-S MCI group, the dosage of vasoactive drugs after surgery, postoperative recovery time, time to cannula removal, and the incidence of POD were significantly decreased in the S-S TCI group (P < 0.05). Overall, POD appeared in 81 patients (16.8%) by postoperative day 3. Multiple regression analysis showed that postoperative blood loss and manually controlled anesthesia were risk factors for POD in spinal surgery patients. Therefore, prophylactic blood transfusion and phenylephrine can reduce the incidence of POD in the presence of postoperative hypotension. Target-controlled anesthesia may improve the quality of anesthesia as well as reduce POD in spinal surgical patients. These results provide clinical evidence for improving the prevention, diagnosis, and management of POD.