Poor olfaction prior to cardiac surgery: Association with cognition, plasma neurofilament light, and post-operative delirium

Click here to access the article.

Objectives: Post-operative delirium (POD) affects up to 50% of cardiac surgery patients, with higher incidence in older adults. There is increasing need for screening tools that identify individuals most vulnerable to POD. Here, we examined the relationship between pre-operative olfaction and both incident POD and POD severity in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. We also examined cross-sectional relationships between baseline olfaction, cognition, and plasma neurofilament light (NfL).