What this means
This is a trial plan that is still signing up people, so no results exist yet. It will test whether simple non-drug steps by nurses lower post-surgery confusion.
Plain-English summary written by an AI model from the registry listing.
- Status
- Recruiting
- Who can join
- Ages 65 and over
- Where
- 1 site
The science
- Registered title
- Non-pharmacological Prevention of POD in Frailty Elderly Undergoing Elective Surgery Applied by Nursing Teams
- Trial ID
- NCT05993754 ↗
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Study type
- interventional
- Conditions
- Frail Elderly Syndrome, Primary Prevention, Postoperative Delirium, Frailty
- What is tested
- Non-pharmacological intervention
- Sponsor
- Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
- Ages
- 65 Years to no maximum
- Dates
- First posted Aug 15, 2023 · updated Jun 10, 2025
Registry summary
The increase in the population over 60 years of age who could receive surgery due to changes in life expectancy and advances in surgical and anesthetic techniques.
Likewise, elderly people (EP) may have a higher risk of postoperative morbidity and mortality compared to young people, with frailty being one of the risk factors that increases adverse outcomes in this period and increases the probability of developing syndromes such as postoperative delirium (POD).
Assessment of frailty in EP prior to surgery is not routine, so it is unknown how many frail and/or pre-frail EP undergo surgery in health care systems. There is an association between being frail and developing greater delirium and/or postoperative cognitive deficit, which in summary translates into an increase in perioperative morbidity and mortality.
For the prevention of POD, there are pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures that seek to promote orientation with respect to their environment and make it as familiar as possible, stimulate early aspects of memory and thinking skills, as well as promote sleep using environmental hygiene measures.
In Chile, protocols of non-pharmacological measures have been proposed by occupational therapy teams, which have had positive results in reducing POD in frail elderly patients. These measures are temporal-spatial reorientation, physical mobilization, correction of sensory deficits, environmental management, sleep protocol, and reduction of anticholinergic drugs with statistically significant results in the reduction of POD.
In accordance with the above, the objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of non-pharmacological measures applied by the nursing team in reducing the incidence of POD during the post-surgical period in fragile and pre-fragile EP undergoing elective non-cardiac surgeries.
It is expected that in the end, frail and pre-frail EP who receive non-pharmacological interventions by the nursing team will present a lower incidence of POD at 24 hours compared to those who receive traditional care.
Sites (1)
- Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Santiago Metropolitan, Chile