Incidence of confusional syndrome (delirium) in adult patients hospitalized at a university hospital in Bogota Colombia

Aim
To evaluate the incidence of delirium in the St. Ignatius University Hospital (Bogotá Colombia) in 2018.

Methods
A prospective cohort study was conducted to identify the incidence of delirium in hospitalized patients from 5 services of the San Ignatius University Hospital between January 1 and June 30, 2018. We evaluated 531 patients, older than 18 years, who entered the hospital through the units of internal medicine, geriatrics, intensive care, general surgery and orthopedics. The CAM scales were applied during the clinical evaluation of each patient. The CAM-ICU scale was applied to those patients who had decreased communication abilities, as well as the RASS to typify those patients with a positive CAM scale. The research group did the collection of data in the defined period and each patient was assessed at admission and every two days until discharge. In case of identifying delirium, the follow-up was performed every 12 h.

Results
We found a total of 12% incidence in the sample. The units with the highest incidence were: Geriatrics (32%) RR 8,10 (CI 95% 2.95–22.24) ICU (16%) RR 3.98 (CI 95% 1.37–11.58).

Conclusion
Delirious patients in our sample who remained in the ICU and the geriatrics unit for a prolonged period showed greater comorbidities with mixed delirium being the most prevalent motor subtype.