Incidence, Severity and Treatment of Delirium in Cardiac Surgery Patients: A Before-after Study

Delirium is a common yet under diagnosed condition in cardiac surgery patients, and may cause prolonged cognitive impairment and increased risk of complications. Patients are at risk of e.g. pulling catheters and lines and may fall attempting to get out of bed. The aging patient population present with many risk factors for developing delirium, but diagnostic tools have been few. Almost 50% present with hypoactive delirium, which is often not diagnosed, nor treated correctly. To optimize effect, treatment should be initiated early, maintained until clinical improvement is observed, and then tapered gradually. Recently, Delirium Observation Screening scale (DOS scale) was developed and validated in elective cardiac surgery patients in the Netherlands, with interesting results. This encouraged us to evaluate the effects of systematic delirium screening and treatment in cardiac surgery patients. To our knowledge, no prior studies have evaluated use of DOS scale in this context.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the incidence and severity of delirium, and the effects of standardized treatment in a population of Danish cardiac surgery patients.