Introduction and purpose: Postoperative delirium develops in 30% of hospitalized patients in surgery units as well as coronary care units. However, delirium affects 40 to 50% of patients during recovery of hip surgery. Delirium after hip surgery can lead to several consequences, poor prognosis, high rate of morbidity and mortality among elderly. The aim of this study was to compare incidence of postoperative delirium in elderly after general surgery and orthopedic surgery.

Material and methods: The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional research. Population of this study was the entire hospitalized patient with general surgery and hip surgery in Shohada Hospital of Khoram Abad city who aged over 65 years old. After considering inclusion criteria, 100 female elderly with hip surgery and 100 patients with orthopedic surgery were collected using convenience sampling in a period of seven months. Data were collected by demographic questionnaire, type of operation, medical history and MMSE test. Cognitive psychology was assessed by MMSE at baseline (before surgery) and 2 to 5 day after surgery twice daily. Then, mean score of cognitive psychology was compared between the baseline and follow-up. Data analysis was conducted by Independent t-test, variance analysis and wilcoxon signed-ranked test.

Findings: The findings of this study showed that mean scores of cognitive psychology in orthopedic surgery was 21.78 and in general surgery was 23.94. Furthermore, the difference between the two mentioned mean scores was significant (p<0.001).

Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, it seems that postoperative delirium in orthopedic surgery is higher than general surgery. Attention should be paid to old patients undergoing prolonged major operations.