Background. Postoperative delirium is one of the most common complications after surgery in elderly patients. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of different techniques of regional analgesia on the incidence of postoperative delirium and the level of cognitive impairment in elderly patients. Materials and methods. A single-center prospective study consistently included 70 elderly patients who underwent emergency abdominal surgery. Depending on the method of perioperative

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... all patients were divided into two basic groups: control (n = 30) and research (n = 40), where one of the perioperative techniques of regional analgesia was used — blockade of the anterior abdominal wall (subgroup AA, n = 20) or epidural analgesia (subgroup EA, n = 20). Results. The initial cognitive status of patients in subgroup EA did not differ significantly from the same indicator in the control group and amounted to 3.0 [3.0; 4.0] points. Subsequently, it gradually improved, reaching 4.0 [3.0; 5.0] (p = 0.04) points on the fifth postoperative day. The cognitive status of patients in the AA subgroup before surgery was slightly better (4.0 [3.0; 4.5] points), but also did not differ significantly from that either in the control group or the EA subgroup. As it turned out, the patients of both subgroups had even better cognitive functioning on the 5th day than before surgery (p ˂ 0.05). This improvement is mostly due to the cessation of an important factor influencing cognitive status — pain. Conclusions. In elderly patients after emergency surgery with epidural analgesia, the incidence of postoperative delirium is 5 %, and when using the anterior abdominal wall blockade — 10 %. The cognitive function of patients received regional postoperative analgesia is restored on the third day after surgery and improves on the fifth postoperative day (p < 0.05).