evaluating quality of life and cognitive impairment in post-cardiac operation

Background: cardiovascular disease can affect the quality of life and postoperative cognitive dysfunction (pocd) following cardiac operation.objectives: the current study aimed to evaluate pocd along with underlying factors in patients after cardiac operation to improve the quality of life, duration of hospitalization, resulting in better prognosis with lower mortality rates.materials & methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 183 patients who underwent cardiac operation. in this study, patients completed the mini-mental state examination (mmse) questionnaire about cognitive disorders before the operation and after recovery. quality of life was also measured using the sf-36 questionnaire, which the patients completed before and 6 months after the operation.results: this study showed a positive correlation in mmse scores before and after the operation (p=0.006). also, there was a significant decline in mmse score after the operation (from 24.91 to 9.67). mmse score decline after the operation was negatively related to smoking habit (p=0.011), time of hospitalization at icu, cerebral oximetry indexes <50%, ejection fraction (ef) index <35% and on-pump blood pressure less than 50 mm hg (p=0.00). also, all eight items in the sf-36 questionnaire had improved significantly after the operation compared to counterpart items before the operation (p=0.001). we found no significant relationship between the demographic characteristics of patients and the sf-36 score.conclusion: this study showed that the mmse score declines after cardiac operation, and quality of life improves significantly.