Preoperative stratification for postoperative delirium: Obstructive sleep apnea is a predictor, the STOP-BANG is not?

In the October 2018 issue of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Wang et al. published a study intended to test the hypothesis that STOP-BANG can contribute to predict the risk for postoperative delirium (POD) (1). In this paper, the authors report data from an a priori planned sub-analysis of the “PrEventing POstoperative Delirium” (PEPOD) trial: a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled, single-center clinical trial on the effects of low-dose haloperidol in patients that present POD after major thoracic surgery (protocol NCT02213900). Preoperative obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) was assessed with the STOP-BANG questionnaire administered to all eligible patients that were subsequently categorized into 2 groups: “low risk” (STOP-BANG <3) and “intermediate-to-high risk” (STOP-BANG ≥3).