Postoperative Cognitive Assesment

[SleepIsGood]

Hi folks

I'm from over in the Anesthesiology realm. I had a quick question. I wanted to try to asses postoperative cognitive dysfxn (a pretty well documented phenomenon) that occurs in certain patients. I wanted to use a easy, cheap, efficient tool to conduct my study. I know that there have been previous studies on this subject and they used MMSE and the Beck Depression Inventory Scores to "include" certain patients.

Then they went on to use such tools as the Visual Verbal Learning test, rey's auditory recall , letter digit coding, wechsler adult intelligence scale II, concept shifting test, stroop color word interference test, etc to asses cognition in a week post op and in three months.

The MMSE is pretty 'simple' to perform. But if I were to bypass using the above tests, are there 'easier' tests that we can use to asses cognitive function...primarily memory recall and the ability to do activities of daily living? Tests that non-psychologists (ie Anesthesia residents) could use?

Thanks for your help.

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[drinkmilk]

i'm no neuropsychologist (if your institution has one they would be an excellent person to consult), but you could try an 'n-back' test of working memory. It tests executive function pretty reliably. The MMSE is not robust enough for such an experiment - it is used for dementia. Once you get up to the 3-back, you are seriously challenging the brain and finding the limits of working memory.