Longer Stay in ICU Linked to Delirium

Statistics show that approximately four out of every ten patients admitted to the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) experience loss of brain activity similarly seen from those suffering from a brain injury or Alzheimer's disease.

A recent study by researchers at the Vanderbilt's ICU Delirium and Cognitive Impairment Group looked at data from over 800 patients who were admitted to an ICU. They found that at least 74 percent of them had developed delirium while staying at a health facility.

Delirium, also known as a state of confusion following a surgery or illness, is a condition that commonly affects close to 15 to 60 percent of all patients in the United States, according to background information from the study.

"As medical care is improving, patients are surviving their critical illness more often, but if they are surviving their critical illness with disabling forms of cognitive impairment then that is something that we will have to be aware of because just surviving is no longer good enough," said Pratik Pandharipande, M.D., professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and lead author of the study, according to a press release.

In the study, researchers found that close to 40 percent of participants had cognitive scores similar to those who had suffered a traumatic brain injury. They also found that 26 percent had scores comparable to people with Alzheimer's disease. Age and race played no difference in the findings, according to the study.

"Regardless of why you come in to an ICU, you have to know that, on the back end of your critical care, you are very likely to be suffering cognitively in ways similar to a TBI patient or an AD patient, except that most of the medical profession doesn't even know that this is happening and few around you suspect anything, leaving most to suffer in silence," said Wes Ely, M.D., professor of Medicine and senior author of the study, via the release.

More information regarding the study can be found via the New England Journal of Medicine.