Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 16, 2016; 4(5): 130-134
Published online May 16, 2016. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v4.i5.130
Sepsis associated delirium mimicking postoperative delirium as the initial presenting symptom of urosepsis in a patient who underwent nephrolithotomy
Deb Sanjay Nag, Abhishek Chatterjee, Devi Prasad Samaddar, Harprit Singh
Deb Sanjay Nag, Abhishek Chatterjee, Devi Prasad Samaddar, Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur 831001, India
Harprit Singh, Department of Urology, Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur 831001, India
Author contributions: Nag DS, Chatterjee A and Singh H were responsible for management of the case, writing of the case report and research for the discussion; Samaddar DP was responsible for writing of the case report, final editing and research for the discussion.
Supported by Tata Main Hospital, Jamshedpur, India.
Institutional review board statement: Review board’s statement is not needed for case reports. Written permission is taken from the head of the institution for publication of the case report.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent has been taken from the patient for the publication of the case report.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Deb Sanjay Nag, Associate Specialist, Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care, Tata Main Hospital, C Road West, Northern Town, Bistupur, Jamshedpur 831001, India. debsanjay@gmail.com
Telephone: +91-943-1166582 Fax: +91-657-2224559
Received: November 14, 2015
Peer-review started: November 16, 2015
First decision: February 2, 2016
Revised: February 24, 2016
Accepted: March 9, 2016
Article in press: March 14, 2016
Published online: May 16, 2016
Processing time: 160 Days and 3.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Postoperative sepsis can initially manifest as delirium only, with other florid manifestations developing later. When delirium is the only initial manifestation, it should be treated with haloperidol, and benzodiazepines are best avoided. Awareness that delirium can be the only initial presentation of sepsis, having a low threshold for its diagnosis after urological surgery and aggressive early management, can save lives.