Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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The present overview describes recent contributions to the literature with regard to choice of anesthetic techniques, approaches to anesthetic management of elderly outpatients undergoing arthroscopy and other procedures, reconsideration of the problem of postoperative delirium in the elderly patient, and a general summary of perioperative management and assessment of anesthetic risk in older adults. ⋯ The efficiency and speed with which outpatient surgery and anesthetic recovery can be conducted in older adults continue to improve. Monitors of depth of anesthesia, ultra-short-acting agents, and combined techniques have minimized minor complications such as nausea and vomiting, and have improved the speed with which these patients recover from anesthesia. A small proportion of elderly surgical outpatients remain at risk for residual postoperative cognitive dysfunction.