Delirium Incidence and Risk Factors in Adult Critically Ill Patients in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND: Delirium in intensive care units (ICUs) is associated with long ICU stay, long hospital stay and increased costs of treatment. Unfortunately, delirium in ICU is significantly underestimated and overlooked by healthcare providers. AIMS: The aim of this tudy is to determine the incidence and associated risk factors of delirium among critically ill patients in Saudi Arabia. METHODS: This is a prospective study. Patients were assessed for delirium using the confusion assessment method for the ICU. Delirium was the independent variable in this study. RESULTS: Fifty-nine patients (17.3%) showed positive delirium at least once compared to 283 patients (82.7%) who did not show positive delirium. Certain factors for delirium found to be significantly correlated with delirium (P < 0.005); including receiving sedation, mode of sedation, receiving mechanical ventilation, resistance to mechanical ventilator, and baseline Glasgow Coma Scale. CONCLUSION: Delirium occurred in >17% of our ICU patients. More efforts should be directed to consider ICU delirium and to minimize its triggering factors.