ArticleBMC geriatrics2025
Effect of opioid-free anaesthesia on postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery: study protocol for a single-centre, prospective, randomized controlled trial.
Article in BMC geriatrics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT06958393 (Effect of Opioid-free Anaesthesia on Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients Undergoing Gastrointestinal Surgery), which is not on this map. Cited by 1 paper.
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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.
Effect of Opioid-free Anaesthesia on Postoperative Delirium in Elderly Patients Undergoing Gastrointestinal Surgery: a Single-centre, Prospective, Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Interpretable machine learning for postoperative nausea and vomiting prediction in elderly orthopedic patients: a comparative study.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2026Article
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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPostoperative delirium (POD) is a common acute and transient form of brain dysfunction in elderly patients following surgery that can lead to serious adverse clinical outcomes and even death. Although existing studies have preliminarily investigated the effects of opioid-free anaesthesia (OFA) on POD, high-quality evidence on these effects for elderly patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery remains limited. This study aims to investigate the effects of OFA on the development of POD in elderly patients following gastrointestinal surgery. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This single-centre, prospective, randomized controlled trial will be conducted at the First Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, China. A total of 654 patients aged 65 years or older who are scheduled for elective gastrointestinal surgery will be randomly allocated to receive either opioid-free anaesthesia (OFA; dexmedetomidine, esmolol, and esketamine) or conventional opioid-based anaesthesia (OBA). The primary outcome is the incidence of POD 7 days after surgery. The secondary outcomes are all-cause mortality within 30 days after surgery, intraoperative haemodynamic changes, the 15-item quality of recovery (QoR-15) scores at 24 h, 48 h, and 72 h after surgery, complications during postoperative hospitalization, pain numerical rating scale (NRS) score at 72 h after surgery, incidence of nausea and vomiting at 72 h after surgery, morphine milligram equivalent for analgesics at 72 h after surgery, duration of anaesthesia (from induction to discontinuation), duration of surgery (from skin incision to the last suture), duration of post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) stay, and length of hospital stay. DISCUSSION: The results of this study may shed light on the effects of OFA on POD in elderly patients undergoing gastrointestinal surgery. The study is designed on the basis of the following key hypothesis: the use of opioid drugs for anaesthesia may increase the risk of POD through mechanisms such as blood-brain barrier destruction, neuroinflammatory responses, and central nervous system depression. Through the single-centre and prospective design of this randomized controlled trial, this study will directly analyse differences in the effects of OFA and conventional OBA on the incidence of POD, haemodynamic stability and long-term cognitive function in elderly patients.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier NCT06958393 Registered on May 6, 2025.
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