The following are the most important diseases or complications that may be contributed to by delirium:
Psyche – Nervous System (F00-F99; G00-G99).
- Recurrent delirium (recurrent delirium).
- Cognitive deficits
Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99).
- Propensity to fall
Further
- Social restrictions
- Nursing home admission (seniors; because of postoperative cognitive deficit (POCD) or postoperative delirium)
- 12-month mortality (death rate) of an intensive care patient is 2.11-fold
Complications of alcohol withdrawal delirium
Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).
- Electrolyte disorders:
- Hypokalemia (potassium deficiency; < 3.5 mmol/l).
- Hyponatremia (sodium deficiency; < 135 mmol/l)
- Hypomagnesemia (magnesium deficiency; 1.8 mmol/l)
- Wernicke’s encephalopathy (synonyms: Wernicke-Korsakow syndrome; Wernicke’s encephalopathy) – degenerative encephaloneuropathic disease of the brain in adulthood; clinical picture: brain-organic psychosyndrome (HOPS) with memory loss, psychosis, confusion, apathy, and gait and stance unsteadiness (cerebellar ataxia) and eye movement disorders / eye muscle paralysis (horizontal nystagmus, anisocoria, diplopia)); vitamin B1 deficiency (thiamine deficiency).
Cardiovascular system (I00-I99).
- Cardiac arrhythmias:
- V. a. atrial fibrillation (VHF).
- After acute alcohol excess (holiday-heart syndrome) → VHF (deterioration of left ventricular function).
- Ventricular tachycardia in alcohol cardiomyopathy.
Psyche – nervous system (F00-F99; G00-G99).
- Alcohol withdrawal seizures (6-48 h after last use); symptomatology: tonic-clonic-generalized, single or series/status focal seizures.
- Central pontine myelinolysis (“osmotic demyelination syndrome”); occurrence almost always when hyponatremia (sodium deficiency) is compensated too quickly; symptomatology: Dysarthria (speech disorders), dysphagia (dysphagia), pyramidal tract signs, para/tetraparesis (bilateral incomplete paralysis (paresis) of one pair of extremities/complete paralysis of all four limbs, i.e., arms and legs), clouding of consciousness, locked-in syndrome (locked-in or Trapped-in syndrome) – condition in which a person is conscious but physically almost completely paralyzed and unable to make himself understood by speech or movement.
Injuries, poisoning, and other consequences of external causes (S00-T98).
- Epidural hematoma (intracranial bleeding (brain hemorrhage) into the space between the skull bones and the dura mater (epidural space)) – bruise marks on the head? Symptomatology: nausea, vomiting, headache, clouding of consciousness, neurological deficits; secondary clouding!
- Subdural hematoma (SDH) – hematoma (bruise) under the hard meninges between the dura mater (hard meninges) and arachnoid (spider tissue membrane); risk group: patients under anticoagulation (anticoagulation);bruise marks on the head?
