A high mortality rate is expected in untreated aortic stenosis (AS) patients when symptoms in form of angina, syncope and heart failure develop. Surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) is the gold standard surgical treatment for AS. Yet, its operative risk might be too high in elderly patients with coexisting conditions. Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is an option to patients without reasonable surgical alternatives. Many patients undergoing TAVI are 80 years and older.
Old patients undergoing cardiac surgery often develop postoperative delirium (PD), an acute state of confusion characterized by temporarily and fluctuating decline in attention and cognition. Knowledge about octogenarians undergoing invasive cardiovascular therapy is scarce, and PD after TAVI remains to be explored. Therefore, the aims of this study are to i) identify incidence, risk factors and possible differences in the course and onset of postoperative delirium in octogenarians accepted for SAVR or TAVI, ii) determine how delirium can predict activities of daily living (ADL), instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), cognitive function and self-reported health status, and iii) investigate if the absence of delirium, can predict readmissions and mortality.