Patients hospitalized with critical illnesses in medical and surgical intensive care units are at high risk for long-term cognitive impairment, according to a study published in The
Researchers used the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status to assess in-hospital delirium, cognitive abilities and executive function in 800 adults with respiratory failure or shock who had been admitted to a medical or surgical ICU, both three and 12 months after discharge.
They found 74 percent of patients developed delirium during their hospital stays.
At the three-month evaluation, 40 percent of patients had global cognition scores similar to patients with traumatic brain injury, while 26 percent of patients had cognitive scores similar to those of patients with mild Alzheimer's disease.
At 12 months after discharge, 34 percent of patients had traumatic brain injury and 24 percent had mild Alzheimer's equivalent scores.
Only 6 percent of patients had baseline cognitive impairment upon hospital admission.
While use of sedatives or analgesics was not associated with long-term cognitive impairment, development of hospital-acquired delirium greatly increased the risk of post-discharge cognitive impairment.
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