Systemic inflammation, neuroinflammation and perioperative neurocognitive disorders

Perioperative neurocognitive disorder (PND) is a common disorder following anesthesia and surgery, especially in the elderly. The complex cellular and molecular processes are involved in PND, but the underlying pathogenesis of which remains inconclusive due to conflicting data. A growing body of evidence has been shown that perioperative systemic inflammation plays important roles in the development of PND. We reviewed the relevant literature retrieved by a search in the PubMed database (on July 20, 2023). The search terms used were “delirium”, “post operative cognitive dysfunction”, “perioperative neurocognitive disorder”, “inflammation” and “systemic”, alone and in combination. All articles identified were English-language, full-text papers. The ones cited in the review are those that make a substantial contribution to the knowledge about systemic inflammation and PNDs. The aim of this review is to bring together the latest evidence for the understanding of how perioperative systemic inflammation mediates neuroinflammation and brain injury, how the inflammation is regulated and how we can translate these findings into prevention and/or treatment for PND.