CLINICAL FEATURES AND PREDISPOSING FACTORS OF DELIRIUM DUE TO COVID-19 PNEUMONIA IN INTENSIVE CARE UNITS

Background: Delirium is an acute disorder of attention, perception, memory, thought, mood, psychomotor activity and sleep-wake cycle that develops intermittently during the day. It is commonly seen in hospitalized elderly patients. Delirium is also a common clinical picture in patients hospitalized in intensive care units due to COVID-19 pneumonia. In this study, we reviewed clinical features and predisposing factors of delirium according to psychomotor subtypes in patients hospitalized in the ICU due to COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: 64 patients who were hospitalized in the ICU due to COVID-19 pneumonia were included. Delirium status and psychomotor subtypes were determined by applying the CAM-ICU scale to the patients daily. The gender, age, comorbidity, treatments, intubation and mortality rates of the patients were recorded. Multivariate analyzes were performed by examining predisposing factors, arterial blood gases, hemogram, biochemistry and brain MRI imaging. A value of p<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: It was found that, the need for intensive care, male gender, advanced age, hypertension, dementia, coronary artery disease were significant risk factors for delirium, in COVID-19 pneumonia. In particular, it was found that the mortality rate was significantly higher in patients with hypokinetic delirium compared to those with hyperkinetic delirium (p=0.035). Conclusion: In this study, it was found that advanced age, male gender, the presence of additional diseases such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and dementia, and hypoxia are factors that increase the frequency of delirium. It was observed that mortality was higher in male gender and patients with hypokinetic delirium. Keywords: COVID-19, pneumonia, delirium, mortality