Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Observational Study
Utility of Head Computed Tomography for Older Adults with Suspected Delirium in the Emergency Department. A Retrospective Observational Study.
Delirium in older people is associated with significant morbidity and mortality and has life-threatening etiologies making prompt recognition essential. Computed tomography of the head (CT-head) may have a role in determining the cause of delirium; however, inpatient studies suggest it is overused. There is a paucity of emergency department (ED)-based research surrounding the use of CT-head in delirium. This study aims to describe the utility of CT-head in older patients presenting to the ED with symptoms of delirium. ⋯ CT-head is ordered for over half of older ED patients with symptoms of delirium despite infrequent acute findings. Acute findings typically occur in the context of symptoms suggestive of intracranial abnormalities such as FND or GCS < 14. This suggests physicians should be more selective when ordering CT-heads in patients with symptoms of delirium.