Differential clinical characteristics, management and outcome of delirium among ward compared with intensive care unit patients

High-dose preoperative glucocorticoid for prevention of emergence and postoperative delirium in liver resection: A double-blinded randomized clinical trial substudy

BACKGROUND

Emergence delirium (ED) and postoperative delirium (POD) are associated with increased morbidity and mortality and occur in up to one-third of patients undergoing major non-cardiac surgery, where the underlying pathogenesis is multifactorial, including increased inflammation. We aimed to assess the effect of pre-operative high- versus low-dose glucocorticoid on the occurrence of ED and POD.

METHODS

This was a substudy from a randomized, double-blinded clinical trial. Patients ≥18 years, undergoing open liver resection were randomized 1:1 to high-dose (HD, 10 mg/kg methylprednisolone) or low-dose (LD, 8 mg dexamethasone) glucocorticoid and assessed for ED and POD for a maximum of 4 days during hospitalization. The 3-min Diagnostic Interview for CAM-defined delirium (3D-CAM) was used for assessment, 15 and 90 min after arrival in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU), and subsequently once daily in the ward.

RESULTS

Fifty-three patients were included in this secondary substudy (26 HD-group and 27 LD-group). ED occurred in n = 5 HD versus n = 6 LD patients 15 min after PACU arrival. At 90 min after PACU arrival, 4 patients had ED, all from LD-group, and resulted in significantly longer PACU admission, 273 versus 178 min in ED versus Non-ED patients. During the first 4 days in the ward, n = 5 patients had at least one occurrence of POD, all from LD-group.

CONCLUSIONS

The primary finding of the current substudy was a lower occurrence of ED/POD in the PACU 90 min after arrival and during the first four postoperative days in patients receiving high-dose glucocorticoid compared with patients receiving low-dose glucocorticoid. The two study groups were not evenly balanced concerning known explanatory factors, i.e., age and size of surgery, which calls for larger studies to elucidate the matter.

Physical restraint of dementia patients in acute care hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cohort analysis in Japan

Introduction

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has caused unprecedented challenges for the medical staff worldwide, especially for those in hospitals where COVID-19-positive patients are hospitalized. The announcement of COVID-19 hospital restrictions by the Japanese government has led to several limitations in hospital care, including an increased use of physical restraints, which could affect the care of elderly dementia patients. However, few studies have empirically validated the impact of physical restraint use during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to evaluate the impact of regulatory changes, consequent to the pandemic, on physical restraint use among elderly dementia patients in acute care hospitals.

Methods

In this retrospective study, we extracted the data of elderly patients (aged > 64 years) who received dementia care in acute care hospitals between January 6, 2019, and July 4, 2020. We divided patients into two groups depending on whether they were admitted to hospitals that received COVID-19-positive patients. We calculated descriptive statistics to compare the trend in 2-week intervals and conducted an interrupted time-series analysis to validate the changes in the use of physical restraint.

Results

In hospitals that received COVID-19-positive patients, the number of patients who were physically restrained per 1,000 hospital admissions increased after the government’s announcement, with a maximum incidence of 501.4 per 1,000 hospital admissions between the 73rd and 74th week after the announcement. Additionally, a significant increase in the use of physical restraints for elderly dementia patients was noted (p = 0.004) in hospitals that received COVID-19-positive patients. Elderly dementia patients who required personal care experienced a significant increase in the use of physical restraints during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion

Understanding the causes and mechanisms underlying an increased use of physical restraints for dementia patients can help design more effective care protocols for similar future situations.

Natural language processing to assess the epidemiology of delirium-suggestive behavioural disturbances in critically ill patients

Background: There is no gold standard approach for delirium diagnosis, making the assessment of its epidemiology difficult. Delirium can only be inferred though observation of behavioural disturbance and described with relevant nouns or adjectives. Objective: We aimed to use natural language processing (NLP) and its identification of words descriptive of behavioural disturbance to study the epidemiology of delirium in critically ill patients. Study design: Retrospective study using data collected from the electronic health records of a university-affiliated intensive care unit (ICU) in Melbourne, Australia. Participants: 12 375 patients Intervention: Analysis of electronic progress notes. Identification using NLP of at least one of a list of words describing behavioural disturbance within such notes. Results: We analysed 199 648 progress notes in 12 375 patients. Of these, 5108 patients (41.3%) had NLP-diagnosed behavioural disturbance (NLP-Dx-BD). Compared with those who did not have NLP-Dx-DB, these patients were older, more severely ill, and likely to have medical or unplanned admissions, neurological diagnosis, chronic kidney or liver disease and to receive mechanical ventilation and renal replacement therapy (P < 0.001). The unadjusted hospital mortality for NLP-Dx-BD patients was 14.1% versus 9.6% for patients without NLP-Dx-BD. After adjustment for baseline characteristics and illness severity, NLP-Dx-BD was not associated with increased risk of death (odds ratio [OR], 0.94; 95% CI, 0.80-1.10); a finding robust to multiple sensitivity, subgroups and time of observation subcohort analyses. In mechanically ventilated patients, NLP-Dx-BD was associated with decreased hospital mortality (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.65-0.99) after adjustment for baseline severity of illness and year of admission. Conclusions: NLP enabled rapid assessment of large amounts of data identifying a population of ICU patients with typical high risk characteristics for delirium. Moreover, this technique enabled identification of previously poorly understood associations. Further investigations of this technique appear justified.

Do specific delirium aetiologies have different associations with death? A longitudinal cohort of hospitalised patients

Aim

To investigate aetiology-specific associations with mortality among older patients with delirium.

Findings

Delirium predicted mortality, as did inflammatory and metabolic disorders. However, there was no evidence for any interactions between these factors.

Message

Mortality from delirium is consistent regardless of underlying aetiology, suggesting that no aetiology carries better or worse prognosis than another.

Purpose

To describe aetiology-specific associations with mortality among older hospital patients with delirium.

Methods

Over 21 months, a cohort of 1702 patients with 2471 acute hospital admissions (median age 85, IQR 80–90, 56% women) were assessed for delirium, categorised with inflammatory and metabolic aetiologies based on available laboratory results, and followed up for all-cause mortality. Interactions between aetiology and delirium were tested.

Results

The total mortality for the cohort was 35.2%. While inflammation, metabolic disturbance, and delirium at time of admission all demonstrated independent associations with mortality, there was no evidence for any interactions between delirium and these laboratory-measured aetiologies.

Conclusions

Delirium remains an important predictor of death in older hospital patients, irrespective of underlying aetiology.

Delirium in trauma patients: a 1-year prospective cohort study of 2026 patients

Background

Delirium in trauma surgery is common, especially post-operatively, but medical characteristics, risk factors and residence post-discharge have not comprehensively been investigated in all trauma patients.

Methods

Over 1 year, 2026 trauma patients were prospectively screened for delirium with the following tools: Delirium Observation screening scale (DOS), Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist (ICDSC) and a DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)-5, nursing tool (ePA-AC) construct. Risk factors—predisposing und precipitating—for delirium were assessed via multiple regression analysis.

Results

Of 2026 trauma patients, 440 (21.7%) developed delirium, which was associated with an increased risk of assisted living (OR 6.42, CI 3.92–10.49), transfer to nursing home (OR 4.66, CI 3.29–6.6), rehabilitation (OR 3.96, CI 3.1–5.1), or death (OR 70.72, CI 22–227.64). Intensive care management (OR 18.62, CI 14.04–24.68), requirement of ventilation (OR 32.21, CI 21.27–48.78), or its duration (OR 67.22, CI 33.8–133.71) all increased the risk for developing delirium. Relevant predisposing risk factors were dementia (OR 50.92, CI 15.12–171.45), cardiac insufficiency (OR 11.76, CI 3.6–38.36), and polypharmacy (OR 5.9, CI 4.01–8.68).Relevant precipitating risk factors were brain edema (OR 40.53, CI 4.81–341.31), pneumonia (OR 39.66, CI 8.89–176.93) and cerebral inflammation (OR 21.74, CI 2.34–202.07).

Conclusion

Delirium in trauma patients is associated with poor outcome as well as with intensive care management and various predisposing and/or precipitating factors. Three quarters of patients who had undergone delirium were not able to live independently at home any more.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00068-021-01603-5.