Association Between Early Tracheostomy and Delirium in Older Adults in the United States.

OBJECTIVES

Early tracheostomy (fewer than eight days after intubation) is associated with shorter length of stay in the intensive care unit and shorter duration of mechanical ventilation. Studies assessing the association between early tracheostomy and incidence of delirium, however, are lacking. This investigation sought to fill this gap.

DESIGN

Retrospective cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Multi-institutional acute care facilities in the United States.

PARTICIPANTS

Data were derived from the National Inpatient Sample data from 2010 to 2014. Included patients were 65 or older and underwent both intubation and tracheostomy during the hospitalization. The authors excluded patients who underwent multiple intubations or tracheostomy procedures.

INTERVENTIONS

Early tracheostomy versus non-early tracheostomy.

RESULTS

In total, 23,310 patients were included, of whom 24.8% underwent early tracheostomy. From multivariate logistic regression, early tracheostomy was associated with lower odds of having a delirium diagnosis (odds ratio [OR] 0.77, p < 0.00001) across all admission classifications. Upon subgroup analysis, early tracheostomy was associated significantly with lower odds of having delirium for patients admitted with medical (OR 0.74, p < 0.00001) and nonsurgical injury admissions (OR 0.74, p = 0.00116).

CONCLUSIONS

Early tracheostomy was associated significantly with lower odds of delirium among all patients studied. This association held true across medical and nonsurgical subgroups.