Prophylactic Consecutive Administration of Haloperidol Can Reduce the Occurrence of Postoperative Delirium in Gastrointestinal Surgery

Postoperative delirium has in recent years been a common complication which can interfere with the recovery of patients after surgery. Unfortunately there is still no medical procedure available which can completely prevent the occurrence of postoperative delirium. Haloperidol is a psychopharmacological agent that has been used to treat the delirium and agitation, especially in geriatric patients. To assess the effectiveness and safety of the use of haloperidiol for the reduction of postoperative delirium, we performed a randomized, comparative clinical study in which 78 patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgery received either 5 mg of haloperidol intravenously postoperatively at 21:00 for 5 consecutive days, or normal saline with the same schedule. Postsurgical evaluation revealed the incidence of postoperative delirium to be only 10.5% (4 of 38 patients) in the group receiving haloperidol treatment, compared to 32.5% (13 of 40 patients) in the saline treatment group. No significant neuroleptic side effects were seen in any of the patients. These results suggest that daily postoperative administration of haloperidol can reduce the occurrence of postoperative delirium safely.