THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL SIMULATION ON DELIRIUM INCIDENCE AFTER CORONARY ARTERY BYPASS GRAFT SURGERY

Despite the prevalence of delirium after the coronary artery bypass graft surgery,
inadequate studies were conducted on the prevention of delirium after this surgery. This study was
undertaken to evaluate the effects of environmental simulation on delirium incidence after coronary
artery bypass graft surgery.
Materials & Methods: A clinical trial was done in the cardiac ICU of Shahid Beheshti Hospital, Kashan,
Iran. A sample of 100 patients who were candidate for coronary artery bypass graft surgery were
randomly allocated to a control and an intervention group. For patients in the intervention group,
postoperative environmental simulation was used to simulate their household environments, while
patients in the control group were cared in usual postoperative environment. The Mini-Mental State
Examination test was used to assess delirium three hours after regaining postoperative consciousness
and then, twice a day until the third postoperative day. Data analysis was performed via the independentsample t, the Chi-square, the Fisher’s exact, and the Mann-Whitney U tests.
Results: The number of patients with delirium or at risk for it in the intervention group was lower than
the control group at different measurement time points. Although the between group differences were
not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The number of patients with or at risk of delirium was less in the intervention group. This
finding is clinically important. However, as the results were not statistically significant, further
investigations are needed in this area