Delirium After Traumatic Brain Injury: Prediction by Location and Size of Brain Lesion

To examine (1) the location of brain lesion that would predict post-traumatic delirium and (2) the association between volume of brain lesion and occurrence of delirium in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI).A retrospective study was conducted by reviewing medical records of 68 TBI patients, categorized into two groups: the delirious group (n=38) and non-delirious group (n=30). The location and volume of TBI were investigated with the 3D Slicer software.The TBI region in the delirious group mainly involved the frontal or temporal lobe (p=0.038). All 36 delirious patients had brain injury on the right side (p=0.046). The volume of hemorrhage in the delirious group was larger by about 95 mL compared to the non-delirious group, but this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.382).Patients with delirium after TBI had significantly different injury site and side, but not lesion size compared to patients without delirium.