Delirium is a common problem in hospitalized patients, with a prevalence of 10-24% in medical population, 37–46% in surgical population, and upto 87% in ICU patients. In individuals over 65 years of age, hospitalized for medical conditions, approximately 10% exhibit delirium on admission, and another 10-15% may develop delirium while in hospital (DSM IV 1994).In Indian population, Rudraetal(2006)recorded 15% incidence of delirium in elderly patients after major elective surgeries.

Delirium is an acute and fluctuating disturbance of consciousness with reduced ability to focus, maintain, or shift attention, accompanied by change in cognition and perceptual disturbances, along with psychomotor, emotional and sleep-wake cycle disturbances.

Delirium is not a disease, but is a symptom of many pathological conditions, such as increasing age, dementia, infections, tumors, chronic diseases, metabolic disorders, fever, and intoxication. Post-operative delirium(POD) manifests in patients who have undergone surgical procedures and anesthesia, usually peaking within three days. Most recover within 4 weeks, but in 50% cases it may persist longer.      Incidence of  POD varies with patients age, pain scores, type of surgery, degree of operative stress, low pre-operative executive scores and depression. POD is a serious complication, associated with increased hospital and ICU length of stay, functional decline, high medical cost, 10 fold  increased risk of dementia, post-discharge institutionalization and death. Mortality increases by 10–20% for every 48 hours of delirium, chiefly from association with other postoperative complications. In literature, most studies are in elderly patients and very few in the young adult population.                                                                 Hence, we decided to carry out this study for occurrence of POD in patients 20-60 years age, and identify risk factors that may help in early diagnosis of Delirium and avoidance of POD.