Delirium, a form of acute brain dysfunction, is widespread in critically ill patients in lower resourced hospitals, and the duration of delirium predicted both mortality and disability at six months after discharge, according to a study published in PLOS ONE.

Sedative medications used in intensive care are associated with increased delirium, which is in turn connected with higher medical costs and greater risk of death and ICU-related dementia.

COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care in the early months of the pandemic were subject to a significantly higher burden of delirium and coma than is typically found in patients with acute respiratory failure. Choice of sedative medications and curbs on family visitation played a role in increasing acute brain dysfunction for these patients.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center will study adult survivors of medical and surgical intensive care at high risk for long-term cognitive impairment to see if computerized cognitive rehabilitation (CCR) is effective in improving cognition in ICU survivors who often have trouble doing complex tasks, maintaining their finances and staying employed.

New findings suggest that treatments that decrease oxidative damage might help with postoperative delirium that occurs in up to 30% of cardiac surgery patients.

Intensive care unit delirium, a fertile area of clinical research and patient care innovation associated with VUMC, is beginning to reshape how commercial electronic health record systems are engineered with regard to intensive care.

For years Kristina Betters, MD, assistant professor of Pediatric Critical Care at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, has been aware of the value of getting patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) moving during their critical illnesses to prevent muscle breakdown, weakness and delirium.