The ability to rate delirium severity is key to providing optimal care for older adults, and such ratings would allow clinicians to target patients with severe delirium and monitor response to treatment, recovery time, and prognosis; assess nursing burden and staffing needs; and, ultimately, provide more appropriate patient-centered care. Current delirium severity measures have been limited in their content, gradations, and measurement characteristics.
Objective
To examine the internal consistency, reliability, and validity for clinical outcomes of the DEL-S delirium severity score, a measure of delirium severity that was developed using advanced psychometric approaches, analogous to those of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System initiative.
Design, Setting, and Participants
This prospective cohort study was conducted at a large academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts. Adults aged 70 years or older who were admitted or transferred to medical or surgical services as either emergency or elective admissions were enrolled between October 20, 2015, and March 15, 2017, and were monitored for 1 year. Data analysis was performed from June 2020 to August 2021.
Exposures
Delirium severity, measured by scores on the delirium severity score short-form (SF; 6 items, scored 0-13, with higher scores indicating more severe delirium) and long-form (LF; 17 items, scored 0-21), considered continuously and grouped into 5 categories.
Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary outcomes were in-hospital outcomes, including length of stay and hospital costs, and posthospital (30, 90, and 365 days) outcomes, including death, health care costs, and rehospitalization.
Results
The 352 participants had a median (IQR) age of 79.7 (74.6-85.5) years, 204 (58.0%) were women, and they were highly educated (median [IQR] duration of education, 14 [7-20] years). Patients in the highest delirium severity score SF group (scores 6-9) had a longer length of stay (13.3 vs 6.9 days;P for trend < .001), greater in-hospital costs ($57 700 vs $34 200), greater cumulative health care costs ($168 700 vs $106 500;P for trend = .01), and increased mortality at 1 year (50% vs 17%;P for trend = .02) compared with patients in the lowest delirium severity score SF group (score 0). Similar trends and significant findings were demonstrated for the delirium severity score LF.
Conclusions and Relevance
These findings suggest that the delirium severity score provides an approach for measuring delirium severity that is associated with adverse clinical outcomes in a direct exposure-response association and that the delirium severity score may help advance patient-centered care for delirium.
BACKGROUND This study aims to compare and externally validate the previously developed Revised Intensity Battle Score (RIBS) against other proposed scores for predicting poor outcomes after rib fractures. METHODS An external validation set was assembled retrospectively, comprising 1,493 adult patients with one or more rib fractures admitted to a Level 1 trauma center between 2019 and 2022. The following rib fracture scores were calculated for each patient: RIBS, Injury Severity Score, Rib Fracture Score, Chest Trauma Score, and Battle score. Each was investigated to assess utility in predicting mortality, intensive care unit upgrade, unplanned intubation and ventilator days. Performance was measured by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. RESULTS Of the 1,493 patients who met inclusion criteria, 239 patients (16%) experienced one of more of the investigated outcomes. Generally, scores performed best at predicting mortality and ventilator days. The RIBS stood out as best predicting “any complication” (AUC = 0.735) and “>7 ventilator days” (AUC = 0.771). CONCLUSION The RIBS represents an externally validated triage score in patients with rib fractures and compares favorably to other static scoring systems. Use of this score as a triage tool may allow stratifying patients who may benefit from direct intensive care unit admission, neuraxial anesthesia and aggressive respiratory care. Next steps include prospective investigation of how pairing these interventions with score directed triage impacts outcomes LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Prognostic and Epidemiological; Level IV.
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Delirium manifests clinically in varying ways across settings. More than 40 instruments currently exist for characterizing the different manifestations of delirium. We evaluated all delirium identification instruments according to their psychometric properties and frequency of citation in published research. DESIGN We conducted the systematic review by searching Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Cochrane Library, Excerpta Medica Database (Embase), PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science from January 1, 1974, to January 31, 2020, with the keywords “delirium” and “instruments,” along with their known synonyms. We selected only systematic reviews, meta‐analyses, or narrative literature reviews including multiple delirium identification instruments. MEASUREMENTS Two reviewers assessed the eligibility of articles and extracted data on all potential delirium identification instruments. Using the original publication on each instrument, the psychometric properties were examined using the Consensus‐based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments (COSMIN) framework. RESULTS Of 2,542 articles identified, 75 met eligibility criteria, yielding 30 different delirium identification instruments. A count of citations was determined using Scopus for the original publication for each instrument. Each instrument underwent methodological quality review of psychometric properties using COSMIN definitions. An expert panel categorized key domains for delirium identification based on criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)‐III through DSM‐5. Four instruments were notable for having at least two of three of the following: citation count of 200 or more, strong validation methodology in their original publication, and fulfillment of DSM‐5 criteria. These were, alphabetically, Confusion Assessment Method, Delirium Observation Screening Scale, Delirium Rating Scale‐Revised‐98, and Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale. CONCLUSION Four commonly used and well‐validated instruments can be recommended for clinical and research use. An important area for future investigation is to harmonize these measures to compare and combine studies on delirium.
Abstract: Caruncular dacryops is a rare cyst of lacrimal tissue most commonly found in the palpebral lobe of the lacrimal gland. The exact cause of dacryops is unclear, although it may be congenital or associated with trauma, infection, or inflammation. The pathophysiology and histology of a caruncular dacryops of the left lacrimal gland in a 68-year-old woman is reported. The patient presented 3 months after a cataract surgery with symptoms of irritation and pruritus of the left eye. A 6- × 6-mm clear cyst of the lacrimal gland prolapsing into the lateral fornix was noted on physical exam. Histological examination of the cyst showed a double layer of flat cuboidal epithelium surrounded by fibrous tissue with minor lacrimal glands present. Periodic acid Schiff-diastase and mucicarmine staining showed the presence of goblet cells dispersed in the epithelial cells. Complete excision of the cyst is the treatment of choice for most caruncular dacryops, and our case remains without recurrence after excision. This case highlights the clinical and histological presentation of caruncular dacryops and raises awareness of their incidence following presumed trauma during cataract surgery.
The Role of Inflammation after Surgery for Elders study correlates novel inflammatory markers measured in blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) assays, and [11C]-PBR28 positron-emission tomography imaging. This study involved a prospective cohort design with patients who underwent elective hip and knee arthroplasty under spinal anesthesia. Sixty-five adults participated with their family members. Inflammatory biomarker assays were measured preoperatively on day 1 and postoperatively at one month. On average, participants were 75 years old, and 72% were female. 54% underwent total knee arthroplasty, and 46% underwent total hip arthroplasty. The mean Modified Mini-Mental State (3MS) Examination score was 89.3; four patients (6%) scored ≤77 points. Plasma assays were completed in 63 (97%) participants, cerebrospinal fluid assays in 61 (94%), and PET imaging in 44 (68%). This complex study presents an innovative effort to correlate peripheral and central inflammatory biomarkers before and after major surgery in older adults. Strengths include collecting concurrent blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and positron-emission tomography with detailed clinical characterization of delirium, cognition, and functional status.
Delirium creates distinct emotional distress in patients and family caregivers, yet there are limited tools to assess the experience. Our objective was to develop separate patient and family caregiver delirium burden instruments and to test their content and construct validity. Two hundred forty-seven patients and 213 family caregivers were selected from an ongoing prospective cohort of medical-surgical admissions aged ≥70 years old. New patient and family caregiver delirium burden instruments were developed and used to measure the subjective experiences of in-hospital delirium. Delirium and delirium severity were measured by the Confusion Assessment Method (CAM) and CAM-Severity (long form). Both Delirium Burden (DEL-B) instruments consist of eight questions and are measured on a 0 - 40 point scale. Final questions had good clarity and relevancy, as rated by the expert panel, and good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = .82-.86). In the cohort validation, Patient DEL-B (DEL-B-P) was 5.1 points higher and Family Caregiver DEL-B (DEL-B-C) was 5.8 points higher, on average, for patients who developed delirium compared to those who did not (p < .001). Test-retest reliability of DEL-B-C at baseline and 1 month was strong (correlation = .73). Delirium severity was mildly-moderately correlated with DEL-B-P (correlation = .34) and DEL-B-C (correlation = .26), suggesting contribution of other factors. We created instruments to reliably measure and evaluate the burden of delirium for patients and their family caregivers. Although additional validation is indicated, these instruments provide a key first step toward measuring and improving the subjective experience of delirium for patients and their families.
We discuss an unusual case of granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) presenting as anterior uveitis with occlusive retinal vasculitis.A case report is presented.A 60-year-old woman with a history of autoimmune disease presented to the retina clinic with red eyes and blurry vision in both eyes. An examination showed anterior uveitis with retinal vasculitis, and topical steroids were started in both eyes. One month later, the patient's vision worsened and an optical coherence tomography scan showed new central cystoid macular edema in the left eye. An antivascular endothelial growth factor injection was given. The next day, her vision was "black" in the left eye and a fundus examination showed global ischemia. A comprehensive uveitis workup was positive for cytoplasmic-staining antineutrophilic cytoplasmic antibody. A diagnosis of GPA was confirmed with a renal biopsy.Physician awareness of ocular GPA presentation is vital, and GPA management is most successful with a multidisciplinary team.
Haemorrhagic cholecystitis is an uncommon cause of abdominal pain that can lead to significant morbidity and mortality if not promptly identified and treated. Known risk factors include trauma, anticoagulation use and cholelithiasis. In a patient with right upper quadrant pain after blunt trauma on anticoagulation without cholelithiasis, haemorrhagic acalculous cholecystitis should be considered in the differential diagnosis, as appeared to be the case in the patient we present here. Fortunately, she recovered after temporisation with a cholecystostomy tube until she underwent more elective interval laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
