The Perioperative Cognition Professional Interest Area will present a session addressing some of the key issues associated with the perioperative management of at-risk and cognitively impaired patients, including immediate, short and long-term risks. This is a key issue for the appropriate care of the elderly given that 30% of hospital interventions occur in those aged 65 years or more.

Speakers will address a variety of topics which impact on the benefit healthcare interventions can achieve and implications of these interventions in vulnerable individuals, including long-term functional outcomes. Perioperative delirium and its consequences will be detailed; followed by strategies to assist healthcare workers in appropriate perioperative care of impaired patients to reduce risk and improve outcome.

This session will include the presentation of recent animal and clinical data addressing the role of preoperative cognitive status on short and long-term outcome, the role of anesthesia on cognitive trajectory and Alzheimer's disease, neuroinflammation, factors which cause cognitive vulnerability in older individuals, and progression to dementia following anesthesia and surgery.

Agenda:

• 12:30 – 12:35 p.m. Welcome, Lis Evered
• 12:35 - 1 p.m. Rod Eckenhoff, University of Pennsylvania; Pa., United States
• 1 – 1:20 p.m. Brendan Silbert, St Vincent's Hospital & University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
• 1:20 – 1:40 p.m Esther Oh, John Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, Md., United States
• 1:40 – 1:55 p.m. Lis Evered, St. Vincent's Hospital & University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
• 1:55 - 2:15 p.m. Mark Yates, Deakin University & Ballarat Health Services, Ballarat, Australia
• 2:15 – 2:30 p.m. Questions and Panel Discussion