Declaration of interest

groups. The above mentioned proof-of-concept trials demonstrate that optimal intraoperative management of patients not only have an important role in reducing the incidence of POCD, particularly in elderly patients, but also may lead to an improvement in outcome generally following major surgery. It would be very unfortunate if such an excellent review left anaesthetists feeling that POCD was not really much of a problem and even if it was, there was nothing they could do about it. As our population ages, we can no longer be complacent about how our intraoperative management may affect postoperative outcome, and not only in POCD.