Effect of family members recorded voice during recovery from general anaesthesia on emergence delirium in elderly patients A randomised controlled trial

Delirium in the immediate postoperative period is a commonly encountered complication amongst patients in the PACU posing many immediate challenges and affecting long term outcomes. The incidence of Emergence Delirium (ED) varies greatly based on patient status as well as type of surgery but evidently higher in elderly population as compared to young adults. There is no universally accepted delirium risk prediction tool and opinions on drug-based prophylaxis of ED remain conflicting and there isn’t any conclusive evidence. However, most of the evidence published till date supports the use of non-pharmacological methods to prevent delirium. Amongst others, auditory stimuli are an easy and effective tool and have shown promising results. A clinical trial conducted in the paediatric population has shown that listening to mother’s recorded voice during emergence can reduce ED in children compared with hearing the recorded voice of a stranger. So we have planned an RCT to study the effectiveness of repeated auditory stimulus in the form of a family member’s recorded voice listened to during recovery compared with a stranger’s voice on the incidence of ED after general anaesthesia, especially in the elderly population keeping in mind the higher incidence in this age group.