About Pond

Post-Operative Neurobehavioral Disturbance (POND) is a website that was created to increase awareness and educate the public, about the neurologically damaging complications that may arise as a result of having been admitted to hospital or having undergone anaesthesia and surgery.

The purpose of this web site is to encourage everyone, all healthcare practitioners, patients and patients’ relatives to be alert to the possibility of a patient developing POND. This web site is designed to inform those who are contemplating or are about to undergo surgery of this and other potential risks. This will enable them to make informed choices when consenting to surgical procedures, especially those requiring general anesthesia.

The website also aims to provide in a single place, objective information to encourage discussion and help shape future healthcare policies in this field.

We hope to encourage hospitals and clinics to:

  • Listen to relatives and act on their concerns if they complain of subtle changes in their relatives mental status
  • Audit the incidence of POND in their workplace
  • Encourage best practices and initiate training modules for doctors, nurses and therapists in the detection and treatment of POND
  • Encourage the routine assessment of postoperative patients (bedside cognitive testing)
  • Make a formal assessment for POND a routine for all postoperative patients

To help us achieve these aims we encourage anyone who has ever had an operation, cared for a relative postoperatively or has been professionally responsible for a patient who has suffered a POND episode to share their experience with us.

We welcome all sides of the discussion and hope to encourage patients, practitioners and researchers to share their experiences and medical expertise.

To read more about the inspiration for POND click here.

It can be said that embarking on an elective non-essential major surgical and anaesthetic procedure is not something that should be entertained lightly. Full consideration of the potential risks v. the benefits of the proposed procedure should always be at the forefront of a potential patients mind. Awareness of the side effects of anaesthesia and an understanding of potential neurobehavioral disturbances may lead to a reduction in postoperative morbidity.

Following surgery numerous healthcare workers and patients’ relatives are responsible for the postoperative care of patients. Many are unaware of the high likelihood patients developing symptoms of a Postoperative neurobehavioral disturbance (POND). Furthermore they may be unaware of how to detect or recognise the early phase of these syndromes. Postoperative delirium is an example of POND. This is an acute deterioration in cognition or other mental functions that may be caused by an acute medical problem; drug induced side effect or other acute causes like a urine infection. Its development in a postoperative patient may have long-term consequences.

Despite the frequency of its occurrence, delirium detection is not a routine postoperative assessment. Part of the reason for this inconsistency is the lack of consensus over the most appropriate assessment tools or indeed the clinical signs and symptoms that define a specific syndrome. Misdiagnosing delirium for example with another similar condition, like dementia, is common.

Few hospitals offer training programs designed to avoid these pitfalls or instil confidence in the use of useable bedside assessment techniques. Encouraging everyone who comes into contact with a postoperative patient to think of the possibility of a POND syndrome may facilitate the early recognition and treatment of these events.

The purpose of this web site is to encourage everyone, all healthcare workers, patients’ relatives and patients to be alert to the possibility of a patient developing POND.

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