• Jorge I F Salluh, Felipe Dal-Pizzol, Patricia V C Mello, Gilberto Friedman, Eliézer Silva, José Mário M Teles, Suzana M A Lobo, Fernando A Bozza, Márcio Soares, and Brazilian Research in Intensive Care Network.
• Medical-Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Hospital de Câncer-I, Instituto Nacional de Câncer, Rio de Janeiro 20230-130 Brazil. jorgesalluh@yahoo.com.br
• J Crit Care. 2009 Dec 1;24(4):556-62.

PurposeThe aim of the study was to characterize the practices of Brazilian ICU physicians toward sedation and delirium.Materials And MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted among a convenience sample of critical care physicians between April and June 2008.ResultsOne thousand fifteen critical care physicians responded. Sedation scoring systems were used by 893 (88.3%) of the respondents. The Ramsay and Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale were used by 81.9% and 6.8% of the respondents, respectively. Most respondents did not discuss sedation targets (62.8%) or practice daily sedative interruption (68.3%) in most patients. More than half of the respondents (52.7%) used a sedation protocol, and the most used sedatives were midazolam (97.8%), fentanyl (91.5%), and propofol (55%). A significant rate of the respondents (42.7%) estimated that more than 25% of patients under mechanical ventilation have delirium, but 53.5% occasionally assessed patients for delirium. Thirteen percent used specific delirium scales, with the Confusion Assessment Method for intensive care unit (ICU) being the most applied. Delirium was often treated with haloperidol (88.1%); however, atypical antipsychotics (36.3%) and benzodiazepines (42.3%) were also used.ConclusionsDespite the recent advances in knowledge of sedation and delirium, most of them are still not translated into clinical practice. Significant variation in practice is observed among ICU physicians and represents a potential target for future research and educational interventions.

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