Spinal anesthesia reduces postoperative delirium in opium dependent patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting.

We investigated the effect of high spinal anesthesia on postoperative delirium in opium dependent patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). The study was conducted in a tertiary referral university hospital on a population of 60 opium dependent patients undergoing CABG surgery. Patients were divided into two groups based on anesthesia protocol. One group were given general anesthesia (GA Group), the other group additionally received intrathecal morphine and bupivacaine (SGA Group). Postoperative delirium (POD) was defined as the main outcome of interest. Incidence of POD was significantly higher in patients of GA Group as compared with those in SGA Group (47% and 17% for GA and SGA respectively; P-value = 0.01). Time to extubation was on average 2.2 h shorter in SGA than in GA (7.1 h and 9.3 h respectively, P-value < 0.001). Intrathecal morphine and bupivacaine reduced the risk of POD after CABG in a population of opium dependent patients.