Canadian Anaesthetists' Society journal
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The recent literature still reports a high incidence of delirium in patients operated with extracorporeal circulation. This syndrome is found more often in patients over 50 years and in patients with a previous history of delirium, alcoholism, drug addiction or cerebral damage and is more frequent after valvular than after coronary surgery. It is also often observed in patients who present major post-operative complications. ⋯ Major post-operative complications were found in 37 (44 per cent) of these 84 patients. The incidence was lower (1.45 per cent) in coronary than in valvular (4.6 per cent) surgery cases. Several explanations are presented to explain this low incidence.