Delirium in elderly hospital patients. A retrospective study
2020 Volume 37 Issue 5 Pages 755-759
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2020 Volume 37 Issue 5 Pages 755-759
Delirium is a common and distressful mental syndrome. Persistent delirium in hospital patients may be poor prognosis.
A retrospective study in (258 beds) Saiseikai–Otaru Hospital revealed that 527 patients (13.4%) in admission 3956 patients developed delirium on each three months from November to January in 2014, 2016 and 2018. Patients identified with delirium criteria of DSM5, were associated with bone fracture/falling out, malignancy, gastrointestinal diseases, central nervous system disorders and chest diseases. Median duration (days) of delirium on each medical background were not significantly changed with log rank test (p＝0.09). Symptoms of delirium defined by stuff included “screaming” and “attachment removing behavior” at 60%, and “consciousness impairment” was defined at only 10%.
The survival of patients with delirium from the day of their hospital admission with BPSD was longer than the patients without BPSD in the Kaplan–Meier plots (log rank test p＜0.01). Proportion of coexisted dementia to delirium patients recognized by ward stuffs was 10.7–21.3% in the delirium patient group.
The group of discharged patients had shorter periods of delirium than the group of nursing home or chronic hospitalization (4.3 days vs 9.6 days or 9.4 days, Mann–Whitney U test p＜0.05, Bonferroni method).
Comparison of the long delirious periods (21 days–) and the short periods (–20 days) groups revealed a much shorter survival in the long periods group by the survival analysis (log rank test, p＜0.01).
Survival of delirium patients might be dependent on the duration of delirium and coexistence of BPSD.
