The effects of a tailored intensive care unit delirium prevention protocol: A randomized controlled trial

A decreased incidence of delirium following the application of non-pharmacologic intervention protocols to several patient populations has been previously reported. However, few studies have been conducted to examine the effects of their application to intensive care unit (ICU) patients.

To examine the effects of applying a tailored delirium preventive protocol, developed by the authors, to ICU patients by analyzing its effects on delirium incidence, in-hospital mortality, ICU readmission, and length of ICU stay in a Korean hospital.

A single-blind randomized controlled trial.

A 1049-bed general hospital with a 105-bed ICU.

Sixty and 63 ICU patients were randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups, respectively.

The researchers applied the delirium prevention protocol to the intervention group every day for the first 7 days of ICU hospitalization. Delirium incidence, mortality, and re-admission to the ICU during the same hospitalization period were analyzed by logistic regression analysis; the 7- and 30-day in-hospital mortality by Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox proportional hazard regression analysis; and length of ICU stay was assessed by linear regression analysis.

Application of the protocol had no significant effect on delirium incidence, in-hospital mortality, re-admission to the ICU, or length of ICU stay. Whereas the risk of 30-day in-hospital mortality was not significantly lower in the intervention than in the control group (OR: 0.33; 95% CI: 0.10-1.09), we found a significantly decreased 7-day in-hospital mortality in the intervention group after protocol application (HR: 0.09; 95% CI: 0.01-0.72).

Application of a tailored delirium prevention protocol to acute stage patients during the first 7 days of ICU hospitalization appeared to reduce the 7-day in-hospital risk of mortality only for this patient population.