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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Oct 19, 2025; 15(10): 107298
Published online Oct 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i10.107298
Published online Oct 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i10.107298
Effect of preoperative transcranial direct current stimulation on postoperative delirium in elderly patients following laparoscopic surgery
Xi Yang, Yu-Fei Wei, Chen-Hui Ye, Wen-Di Tian, Xue-Yao Li, Ye-Ju Hu, Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221002, Jiangsu Province, China
Yu-Fei Wei, Chen-Hui Ye, Wen-Di Tian, Xue-Yao Li, Ye-Ju Hu, Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Anesthesiology, Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221002, Jiangsu Province, China
Li-Ping Chen, Department of Pain Management, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Xuzhou 221002, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Xi Yang and Yu-Fei Wei.
Author contributions: Yang X and Wei YF conceptualized and designed the research, they contributed equally to this article, they are the co-first authors of this manuscript; Ye CH and Tian WD performed the literature search, analyzed the data; Li XY and Hu YJ wrote the original manuscript; Chen LP edited the final manuscript; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, approval No. XYFY2024-KL026-01.
Clinical trial registration statement: This study is registered at http://www.chictr.org.cn/. The registration identification, approval No. ChiCTR2400087975.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent before enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CONSORT 2010 statement: The authors have read the CONSORT 2010 Statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CONSORT 2010 Statement.
Data sharing statement: The data from this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding authors at
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Li-Ping Chen, MD, Chief Physician, Department of Pain Management, The Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, No. 99 Huaihai West Road, Xuzhou 221002, Jiangsu Province, China. cpdw521@163.com
Received: March 30, 2025
Revised: May 13, 2025
Accepted: July 18, 2025
Published online: October 19, 2025
Processing time: 180 Days and 16.1 Hours
Revised: May 13, 2025
Accepted: July 18, 2025
Published online: October 19, 2025
Processing time: 180 Days and 16.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: A single session of preoperative transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) significantly reduces the incidence of postoperative delirium (POD) in elderly patients undergoing major laparoscopic surgery, with a POD rate of 7.0% in the tDCS group compared to 22.8% in the sham group. In addition, tDCS significantly reduces postoperative anxiety and depression but not pain. These findings uphold preoperative tDCS as a promising intervention for preventing POD and enhancing psychological recovery in elderly surgical patients.