Epidemiology, Risk Factors, Diagnosis, and Potentially Effective Strategies to ImproveDelirium in Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Units: A Narrative Review

Introduction: Delirium is prevalent in intensive care units (ICUs), causing significant financial burden anddevastating consequences. The primary objective of this article is to furnish comprehensive insights intodelirium, encompassing its epidemiology, risk factors, diagnosis, and strategies for preventing its occurrenceamong patients in the ICUs.Method: The protocol of the narrative review followed the PRISMA guideline. An extensive search wasconducted from ۲۰۰۰ to September ۱۶, ۲۰۲۳, using current articles in databases such as PubMed, CINAHL,Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, SID, and Magiran with keywords “Delirium” and “Intensive CareUnit”. All Persian and English-published studies were included in this review. Qualitative and Review articles,letters to the editor, and reports were excluded from this review.Results: Overall, ۹۹۷ articles were initially identified, which were reduced to ۱۰۳ by checking the titles andabstracts. Finally, by reviewing the full texts, ۱۷ articles met the criteria of our study. The results of the includedstudies show that it is better to implement the pain, agitation, and delirium bundle to diagnose delirium inchildren admitted to the pediatric ICU. Therefore, methods are suggested to improve the sensitivity andspecificity of diagnostic tools, such as training nurses, developing guidelines, and using electroencephalogramsand automated infrared pupillometry.Conclusion: It should be noted that delirium significantly impacts mortality and morbidity and imposes heavycosts on the healthcare system. Therefore, finding methods to improve the quality and speed of deliriumdetection is essential.

کلیدواژه ها:

Epidemiology ، ” “Risk Factor ، ” “Diagnosis ، ” “Delirium ، ” “Intensive Care Unit