New research has shown that nearly half of the patients in the intensive care units who are not on ventilators experience delirium. Delirium is also one of the major reasons that patients stay longer in hospitals.
Delirium is a regular occurring condition of patients on mechanical ventilators in the intensive care units. Delirium is the cause for more deaths, longer hospitalization tenure and higher medical costs for the patients and their families.Researchers had found out that out of the 261patients admitted in the intensive care units of the medical centers, and were not on ventilators, 48% of them experienced delirium. Of them 19% of them died, when compared to the other group where only 6% of the patients died who did not suffer delirium. Also the patients who suffered from delirium also have 29% greater risk of being in the ICU for longer period and 41% of increased risk of a longer overall hospital stay.
Taking the increased cost of hospitalization and medication for the people, researchers advised all the hospitals to routinely monitor of all intensive care patients, ventilated or otherwise, to check for and prevent deliriums.
The study was published in the new issue of the journal Critical Care.
