Disordered consciousness: delirium in the intensive care unit

Delirium is a neuropsychiatric syndrome of disordered consciousness and cognition whose hallmark is a gross deficit of attention. A frequent complication in critically ill medical and surgical patients in the general hospital, especially those in the intensive care unit, delirium should be considered a state of acute brain failure, alongside other types of organ failure. It is caused not by geographic assignment to the intensive care unit but by diverse medical and surgical conditions and their treatments. As such, its definitive treatment is reversal of these underlying medical and surgical problems, and minimization or outright discontinuation of offending therapies.