Week 4 Blog Post: ICU Delirium

This journal article is a study of incidence in delirium in Denmark ICU vent patients 18 years old and older that stayed in the ICU longer than 48 hours. The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of fluctuating levels of sedation on the incidence of delirium in the ICU. They found out that the bigger the changes to the levels of sedation, the is higher chances of the patient having delirium. The article studied 640 patients. In those 640, 65% of them had an incidence of delirium at least once. According to the article, &  Delirious patients were significantly older, more critically ill, more often intubated, had longer ICU stays, and had higher ICU mortality than non-delirious patients& (Svenningsen et. al, 2013).  I agree with the findings of this research. I would imagine that older adult patients will have a higher incidence of ICU delirium because of their age. I feel other patients have incidences due to over medication and longer stay in ICU. The article recommends a systematic delirium assessment tool to prevent, predict, and treat ICU delirium. It also recommended that further studies should  be done between the compounding effects of medication and incidences of delirium.

 

Svenningsen, H., Egerod, I., Videbech, P., Christensen, D., Frydenberg, M., & Tønnesen, E. (2013). Fluctuations in sedation levels may contribute to delirium in ICU patients. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, 57(3), 288-293. doi:10.1111/aas.12048