Acute Confusional State in Elderly- Aetiology and Clinical Features

Abstract

BACKGROUNDAcute confusional state is a common manifestation in elderly persons. Because of its multifactorial aetiology, a wide variety of diseases present as acute confusional state in elderly. MATERIALS AND METHODSA descriptive study was conducted in Department of Medicine of SCB Medical College, Cuttack and consecutively 100 adult patients with acute confusional state were included in the study. These patients were studied for the aetiology, clinical features and outcome. Relevant investigations were done in each patient and the data was tabulated. RESULTSAmong 100 patients of acute confusional state, 58 (58%) were male and 42 (42%) were female patients. Most common aetiology was stroke (31%) followed by hyponatraemia (16%) with the predisposing factors being diabetes mellitus (37%) and hypertension (32%) in order. Most common symptom was vomiting (36%) followed by fever (28%). CONCLUSIONAcute confusional state gives physician an alert preceding the illness or events. Early diagnosis and proper management will reduce mortality in elderly. KEYWORDS