About one-third of patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) will develop delirium, a condition that lengthens hospital stays and substantially increases one’s risk of dying in the hospital.
This according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers appearing in the British Medical Journal.
“Every patient who develops delirium will on average remain in the hospital at least one day longer,” says one of the study’s authors, Robert Stevens, M.D., a specialist in critical care and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Worse, “if you're admitted to the intensive care unit and you develop brain dysfunction, your risk of not surviving your hospital stay is doubled.”
