ArticleZeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie2025
Polypharmacy and anticholinergic burden as risk factors for postoperative delirium in surgical medicine.
Article in Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Relevance and Feasibility of a "Geriatric Delirium Pass" for Older Patients with Elective Surgeries: Findings from a Multi-Methods Study.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Cross national pharmacovigilance analysis of drug-induced delirium: a comparative study using the US FAERS, Japanese JADER, and canadian CVAR datasets.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- Preoperative quantitative quadriceps muscle ultrasound to predict POD for gastrointestinal surgery in older patients.BMC gastroenterology · 2025Article
- Comparative predictive value of preoperative GNRI, PNI, and CONUT for postoperative delirium in geriatric abdominal surgery patients admitted to the ICU.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Anticholinergic burden and polypharmacy in hospitalized urology patients: Prevalence and clinical implications.Indian journal of urology : IJU : journal of the Urological Society of IndiaArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposePolypharmacy is a widespread phenomenon in older patients. In particular, the anticholinergic burden of medication is an important risk factor for delirium due to age-related changes in the cholinergic system.
methodsPreoperative medication, including the calculation of the anticholinergic burden (ACB), was recorded in a prospective study (421 patients) to identify potential risks associated with medication intake. Postoperative delirium screening was carried out daily.
resultsThe study included 199 women (47.3%) and 222 men (52.7%) aged 80.8 ± 6.7 years and 78.8 ± 6.2 years, respectively. Antidepressants odds ratio (OR) 3.16 (95% confidence interval. CI, 1.51-6.64), antidiabetic drugs OR 2.53 (95% CI 1.27-5.03), neuroleptics OR 3.52 (95% CI 1.70-7.28) and Parkinson medication OR 5.88 (95% CI 1.95-17.7) showed a significantly higher risk for delirium. The ACB score revealed an anticholinergic burden in 43 patients (10.4%). The delirium rate was 25.6% (n = 11) and 11.0% (n = 40) had no anticholinergic burden. A significant correlation can be demonstrated with χ
conclusionThe standardized recording of medication is essential, especially when identifying patients at risk of suffering from delirium. The use of the ACB score to assess the anticholinergic burden is a simple and reliable screening tool and should be part of a preoperative geriatric assessment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.