Mortality Risk Doubled in Delirious ICU Patients

Nearly 33% of patients admitted to intensive care units will become delirious, and risk of death in these patients is nearly twice as high as patients who do not develop delirium, according to a recent study.

In order to explore the relationship between this brain dysfunction and short term outcomes in critically ill patients, researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of data including studies that utilized a validated delirium screening or rating system and assessed the relationship between delirium and 1 of the following variables: length of hospital stay, duration of mechanical ventilation, death during admission, and health outcomes post hospital discharge.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

RELATED CONTENT
Aging Matters: Delirium in Hospitalized Elderly Patients
The Delirious Complexity of Delirium
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Delirium was identified in 5280 (31.8%) participants. Overall, when compared with controls, patients with delirium had a significantly greater mortality rate during hospital admission (risk ratio 2.19, 94%).

Further, delirium was also associated with longer hospital stays and longer need of mechanical ventilation.

“Knowledge of the true magnitude of delirium and its associated burdens in critically ill patients would allow clinicians, researchers, and policymakers to allocate much needed resources towards reducing morbidity and mortality associated with delirium,” they concluded.

The complete study is published in the June issue of the British Medical Journal.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

Reference:
Salluh JIF, Wang H, Schneider EB, et al. Outcome of delirium in critically ill patients: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2015 June [epub ahead of print] doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bm.