INTRODUCTION
delirium, POCD, postoperative cognitive dysfunction, cognitive impairment
MINOR, THYROID
Rather broad definition of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is used in scientific literature. Usually, it is described as a newly occurring cognitive impairment that develops after anesthesia and lasts from several days to months (Rundshagen, Recent studies identify POCD as one of the major hindrances for patients to return to a normal domestic environment due to marked impairments observed in their information acquisition, language functions, abstract thinking, situational judgment, and problem‐solving skills (Czyż‐Szypenbajl et al., The current evidence on whether the use of inhalational anesthetics is an important factor in POCD development is controversial and often low class of evidence (Huang et al., Even though volatile anesthetics have been associated with cognitive conditions, such as delirium (Saller et al., Thyroid surgery is an example of a minor surgical risk procedure (Kristensen et al., Bearing that in mind, to aid in closing this previously described evidence gap in POCD research, we present the findings of a randomized study that compares the effects general anesthesia maintained with either sevoflurane or desflurane has on early postoperative cognitive function after thyroid surgery.Since desflurane has desirable effects on postoperative emergence, we hypothesize that desflurane is associated with less cognitive impairment than sevoflurane.