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Epidemiology of Delirium in Critically Ill Adults: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Outcomes

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Delirium

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the prevalence, risk factors, and outcomes of delirium. Delirium is common in patients requiring critical care. Estimates of the prevalence vary from 16% to 89% depending on the type of delirium, assessment tool used, and healthcare setting. Multiple risk factors predispose (e.g., old age, comorbidity, frailty) and precipitate (e.g., surgery, mechanical ventilation, pharmacological agent administration) a patient’s risk. Clinical care processes can contribute to the iatrogenic rate of incident delirium following hospital admission. Indeed, the early identification of delirium is necessary for the healthcare team to mitigate the cascade of negative outcomes resulting from this syndrome.

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Abbreviations

ADL:

Activities of daily living

APACHE II:

Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II

CAM-ICU:

Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU

DECCA:

Delirium Epidemiology in Critical Care

IADL:

Instrumental activities of daily living

ICDSC:

Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist

ICU:

Intensive care unit

IQCODE:

Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly

PICS:

Post-intensive care syndrome

PTSD:

Post-traumatic stress disorder

RASS:

Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale

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Kehler, D.S., Sanjanwala, R.M., Arora, R.C. (2020). Epidemiology of Delirium in Critically Ill Adults: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Outcomes. In: Hughes, C., Pandharipande, P., Ely, E. (eds) Delirium. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25751-4_3

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