BACKGROUND

Delirium is a "disturbance of consciousness and a change in cognition that develop over a short period of time." Delirium contributes to increased patient morbidity, mortality and burden on the healthcare system.

OBJECTIVES

To calculate the incidence of delirium among patients admitted to cardiovascular surgical ICU (CVICU) in DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, identify patient characteristics associated with the increased risk of delirium.

METHODS

A retrospective review of medical records of all patients admitted in CVICU at DeBakey heart and Vascular Center at Houston Methodist Hospital, from January 2017 to December 2017 Surgical, non-surgical patients were included in the study. An outcome variable of delirium vs not was evaluated with demographic and clinical patient characteristics. Descriptive statistics and group differences in delirium were examined using chi-square for categorical variables and T- test for continuous variables. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate predictors of delirium with a significance level of p< 0.05. Analyses were performed using SAS 9.4.

RESULTS

A total of 503 patients were included in the study. Delirium was diagnosed in 94 patients (18.69%) of which 63 patients (67.02%) were males. Mean age of patients with delirium was slightly higher than patients without delirium (66.56 years vs 62.50 years, P= 0.0098). A significant association between chronic kidney disease (CKD) and delirium was observed (p=0.02) in unadjusted analysis. Adjusted multivariate logistic regression model showed age above 80 years (OR, 2.30; [ 95% CI, 1.06-4.97; p =0.03]) and a diagnosis of CKD (OR, 1.814 [ 95% CI, 1.02-3.22; p=0.04]) were significant predictors of delirium.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients older than 80 years and those with CKD were at an increased risk of delirium. Special attention should be provided to such patients in the CVICU to prevent and readily treat delirium. Future research should examine these predictors among different surgery types.