ArticleAnnals of medicine2026
Effect of phenylephrine versus ephedrine on the incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing non-cardiac and non-neurosurgical procedures: protocol for a multicentre, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial.
Article in Annals of medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWhether ephedrine, when used to maintain intraoperative blood pressure, is superior to phenylephrine in reducing postoperative delirium remains uncertain. This study aims to determine whether the intraoperative management of hypotension with ephedrine, compared with phenylephrine, reduces the incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing major non-cardiac, non-neurosurgical surgery.
methodsThis multicentre, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial will enrol 1,084 elderly patients scheduled for elective non-cardiac and non-neurosurgical major surgeries under general anaesthesia at seven hospitals in China. Participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio, stratified by study centre, to receive continuous intravenous infusion of either phenylephrine or ephedrine to maintain mean arterial pressure within 20% of the baseline value. The primary outcome is the incidence of postoperative delirium within 7 days after surgery. Secondary outcomes include severity of postoperative delirium, numeric rating scale pain scores at rest and during activity at 24, 48 and 72 h postoperatively, intensive care unit (ICU) admission rate and length of ICU stay, length of postoperative hospital stay, incidence of in-hospital major adverse cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events (myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, heart failure, and stroke), and 30-day all-cause mortality. DISCUSSION: We hypothesize that ephedrine, when used to maintain intraoperative blood pressure, is superior to phenylephrine in reducing postoperative delirium in elderly patients undergoing major non-cardiac, non-neurosurgical surgery. The findings of this study may provide high-quality evidence for optimizing the management of intraoperative hypotension in this vulnerable population.
trial registrationChinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2500115385).
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.