SYSTEMATIC REVIEW


Hypertension and Risk of Post-Operative Cognitive Dysfunction (POCD): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis



I. Feinkohl1, *, G. Winterer2, T. Pischon1, 2, 3
1 Molecular Epidemiology Research Group, Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany
2 Charité – Universitaetsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
3 MDC/BIH Biobank, Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), and Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Berlin, Germany


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Creative Commons License
© 2017 Feinkohl et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), Robert-Roessle-Str. 10, D-13092 Berlin, Germany; Tel: 0049 30 9406-4595; E-mail: insa.feinkohl@mdc-berlin.de


Abstract

Background:

Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) occurs frequently after major surgery. Hypertension is well-established as a risk factor for age-related cognitive impairment, but it is unclear whether or not it also increases the risk of POCD.

Objective:

To evaluate the role of hypertension in POCD risk in a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Method:

PubMed, Ovid SP and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were searched for longitudinal studies of adults undergoing surgery with reporting of hypertension, blood pressure and/or anti-hypertensive treatment associations with POCD as relative risks or odds ratios. Fixed-effects meta-analyses were performed using Review Manager (version 5.3).

Results:

Twenty-four studies on 4317 patients (mean age 63 years) were included. None of the studies had set out to assess hypertension as a risk factor for POCD. Hypertension was used as a categorical predictor throughout and only 2 studies adjusted for potential confounders. Across all 24 studies, hypertension was not significantly associated with POCD risk (RR 1.01; 95% CI 0.93, 1.09; p=0.82), though among 8 studies with >75% males, we found hypertension associations with a 27% increased risk of POCD (RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.07, 1.49; p=0.005).

Conclusion:

Our findings do not support the hypothesis that hypertension is a risk factor for POCD. However, since none of the studies included in our analysis were hypothesis-driven and most did not adjust for potential confounders, further systematic investigations are needed to evaluate the role of hypertension in the epidemiology of POCD.

Keywords: Cognitive epidemiology, Blood pressure, Hypertension, Post-operative cognitive dysfunction, POCD, Meta-Analysis.