11–42% of general medical in-patients, with even higher rates in older patients, those with pre-existing cognitive impairment, terminal illness or receiving care in intensive care units. Although delirium is classically described as a syndrome with high inherent reversibility, studies have increasingly highlighted that persistence is a common occurrence in older people. Despite its relatively h...

BACKGROUND reliable delirium risk stratification will aid recognition, anticipation and prevention and will facilitate targeting of resources in clinical practice as well as identification of at-risk patients for research. Delirium risk scores have been derived for acute medicine, but none has been prospectively validated in external cohorts. We therefore aimed to determine the reliability of e...

CONTEXT In end-of-life care, delirium is often not recognized and poses unique management challenges, especially in the case of refractory delirium in the terminal phase. OBJECTIVES To review delirium in the terminal phase context, specifically in relation to recognition issues; the decision-making processes and management strategies regarding its reversibility; the potential refractoriness o...

BACKGROUND Despite practice guidelines promoting delirium assessment in intensive care, few data exist regarding current delirium assessment practices among nurses and how these practices compare with those for sedation assessment. OBJECTIVES To identify current practices and perceptions of intensive care nurses regarding delirium assessment and to compare practices for assessing delirium wit...

Delirium after cardiac surgery is common and associated with acute cognitive dysfunction, physical, mental, and behavioral problems, as well as increased mortality. The impact is substantial for patients, families, and society as a whole. The aims of this article is to review the relationship between cognition and delirium, incidence and mechanism of delirium, factors associated with occurrence...

The present study was carried out on the hospitalised geriatric general medical patients. The assessment of the patients was carried out within 24 hours of admission and on every fourth day thereafter using Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE), Confusion Assessment Method (CAM), Delirium Symptom Interview (DSI) and ICD-10-Diagnostic Criteria of Research for delirium. An overall rate of deliriu...

15-day increase in hospital length of stay (LOS), a financial impact of $4 billion to $16 billion annually, and a 19% increase in 6-month mortality. Delirium is common across all patient settings; the prevalence, however, varies according to acuity of illness. Delirium develops in general medicine patients at rates ranging from 11% to 42%. The highest prevalence of delirium, as high as 87%, occ...

Background and Objectives: Studies have shown showed that delirium affects the long-term functional status, however, the acute effect of delirium on functioning has been less documented. The purpose of this analysis was to examine the acute impact of delirium on the level of functioning. Methods: All patients were recruited at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). The Memorial Del...

CONTEXT Delirium is common among inpatients aged 65 years and older and is associated with multiple adverse consequences, including increased length of stay (LOS). However, delirium is frequently unrecognized and poorly understood. At one hospital, baseline management of delirium on medical-surgical units varied greatly, and psychiatric consultations focused exclusively on crisis management. ...

BACKGROUND Post-operative delirium is a serious complication in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. It remains unclear whether peri-operative hemodynamic and perfusion variables affect the risk for postoperative delirium. The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate the association between perfusion and hemodynamics peri-operative with the appearance of post-operative delirium. ...