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Call for papers - Anesthesia and cognitive impairment

Guest Editors:
Sarah Saxena: AZ Sint-Jan Brugge Oostende AV, Belgium
Gaetano Scaramuzzo: Department of Translational Medicine, University of Ferrara & Department of Emergency, Arcispedale Sant’Anna, Italy

Submission Status: Open   |   Submission Deadline: 21 February 2024


Perioperative neurocognitive disorder (PND) is a major life-challenging complication in the perioperative period and its incidence ranges from 15% to 50%. Considering that older age is a risk factor for PND and that the global proportion of people aged 60 and above will increase from 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2050, its incidence will probably further increase. While physicians seem to be more and more aware about this condition, PNDs still are often misdiagnosed and remain a challenge for anesthesiologists and surgical staff.

Nevertheless, the raised recognition of PND's role is challenging the current clinical practice, with an increased attention to preoperative conditions of frailty and to intraoperative anesthesia monitoring, using for example processed EEG signal, to avoid both conditions of intraoperative over (toxicity) or under (awareness) treatment.

In order to recognize the anesthesiologists’ efforts to improve management of PND in recent years, we have decided to launch a BMC Anesthesiology collection called “Anesthesia and cognitive impairment”.

Meet the Guest Editors

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Sarah Saxena: AZ Sint-Jan Brugge Oostende AV, Belgium

Sarah Saxena is a dynamic, young anesthesiologist associated with the Université Libre de Bruxelles, who recently joined the department of Anesthesiology, AZ Sint-Jan Brugge - Oostende AV, Bruges, Belgium. She is highly active in perioperative neurocognitive research, a subject she recently presented her PHD thesis in. Sarah has a particular interest in investigating preventative and therapeutic strategies in order to mitigate perioperative neurocognitive disorders. On a personal level, Sarah is actively involved in improving equity, diversity and inclusion in anesthesiology.

Gaetano Scaramuzzo: Department of Translational Medicine, University of Ferrara & Department of Emergency, Arcispedale Sant’Anna, Italy

Dr. Gaetano Scaramuzzo is a consultant intensivist and anesthesiologist for the Arcispedale Sant’Anna (Ferrara) and a research assistant for the University of Ferrara. His main interests are intraoperative advanced monitoring, lung pathophysiology and medical imaging. His work is mainly focused on personalized approaches to critically ill and anesthesia patients, innovative technologies for diagnosis and monitoring and acute respiratory failure mechanisms. He is associate editor of BMC Anesthesiology and BMC Pulmonary medicine and part of the NEXT committee of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

About the collection

Perioperative neurocognitive disorder (PND) is a major life-challenging complication in the perioperative period and its incidence ranges from 15% to 50%. Considering that older age is a risk factor for PND and that the global proportion of people aged 60 and above will increase from 12% in 2015 to 22% in 2050, its incidence will probably further increase. While physicians seem to be more and more aware about this condition, PNDs still are often misdiagnosed and remain a challenge for anesthesiologists and surgical staff.

Nevertheless, the raised recognition of PND's role is challenging the current clinical practice, with an increased attention to preoperative conditions of frailty and to intraoperative anesthesia monitoring, using for example processed EEG signal, to avoid both conditions of intraoperative over (toxicity) or under (awareness) treatment.

In order to recognize the anesthesiologists’ efforts to improve management of PND in recent years, we have decided to launch a BMC Anesthesiology collection called “Anesthesia and cognitive impairment”.

We invite submissions from all aspects of this developing field including, but not limited to:

•    Identifying risk factors for PND
•    Strategies to mitigate PND development
•    Optimising anesthesia  or postoperative care plan
•    Use of EEG signal to prevent or predict PND
•    Pathogenesis of PND

Image credit: © LIGHTFIELD STUDIOS / stock.adobe.com

  1. Postoperative delirium (POD) is an acute form of brain dysfunction that can result in serious adverse consequences. There has been a link between cognitive dysfunction and poor sleep. The present study aimed t...

    Authors: Jinwei Zheng, Lulu Wang, Wei Wang, Huafeng Zhang, Fangfang Yao, Junping Chen and Qingxiu Wang
    Citation: BMC Anesthesiology 2023 23:306
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) has been reported as a significant complication in elderly patients. Various methods have been proposed for reducing the incidence and severity of POCD. Intravenous l...

    Authors: Chuan Geng, Baoji Hu, Jihong Jiang, Yunhe Zhang, Weiqing Tang, Mengzhi Pan, Leilei Sun, Peifen Chen and Hengyue Wang
    Citation: BMC Anesthesiology 2023 23:299
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Decline in olfaction may occur after general anesthesia, but the exact incidence and underlying physiopathology remain scarcely investigated. Olfactory dysfunction arises with aging and is known to be linked t...

    Authors: Victoria Van Regemorter, Richard Coulie, Jordi Dollase, Mona Momeni, Alexandre Stouffs, Lisa Quenon, André Mouraux and Caroline Huart
    Citation: BMC Anesthesiology 2023 23:295
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. It is believed that negative postoperative behavioral changes (NPOBC) is associated with negative perioperative outcomes in children. The importance of development of a predictive model of NPOBC was noted. Thi...

    Authors: Lijing Li, Jianmin Zhang, Jiayi Li, Yi Ren, Zhengzheng Gao, Jia Gao, Fuzhou Zhang, Fang Wang and Tiehua Zheng
    Citation: BMC Anesthesiology 2023 23:261
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. The anesthetic states are accompanied by functional alterations. However, the dose-related adaptive alterations in the higher-order network under anesthesia, e. g. default mode network (DMN), are poorly revealed.

    Authors: Fengru Guo, Yuqin Li, Zhaoxin Jian, Yan Cui, Wenhui Gong, Airui Li, Wei Jing, Peng Xu, Ke Chen, Daqing Guo, Dezhong Yao and Yang Xia
    Citation: BMC Anesthesiology 2023 23:224
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common postoperative disorder that is frequently observed after general anesthesia, which seriously threatens the quality of patients’ life. Existing studies hav...

    Authors: Junxia Zhang, Danting Jia, Wenbin Li, Xiaohui Li, Qian Ma and Xuexin Chen
    Citation: BMC Anesthesiology 2023 23:214
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Potassium channels (KCa3.1; Kv1.3; Kir2.1) are necessary for microglial activation, a pivotal requirement for the development of Perioperative Neurocognitive Disorders (PNDs). We previously reported on the rol...

    Authors: Sarah Saxena, Vincent Nuyens, Christopher Rodts, Kristina Jamar, Adelin Albert, Laurence Seidel, Mustapha Cherkaoui-Malki, Jean G. Boogaerts, Heike Wulff, Mervyn Maze, Véronique Kruys and Joseph Vamecq
    Citation: BMC Anesthesiology 2023 23:80
    Content type: Research Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Research Articles. Before submitting your manuscript, please ensure you have read our submission guidelines. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select ["Anesthesia and Cognitive Impairment"] from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Guest Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Guest Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.