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Delirium in patients has well-documented adverse physical and mental outcomes. Delirium impairs patients' capacity to grasp and retain information, thus affecting their right to informed consent and active participation in treatment and care decisions. In Danish hospitals, delirium afflicts up to 50% of the elderly patients, yet it often goes unreported due to the absence of systematic screening. The selection of a screening tool should be contextually relevant. This review gives an overview of delirium screening instruments available in Danish, each with distinct advantages and disadvantages., (Published under Open Access CC-BY-NC-BD 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.)

A case of acute uraemia caused by cholesterol emboli in the kidneys in a sixty-six year old male with arteriosclerosis is presented. No effective treatment is available, but recognizing the condition may save the patient from otherwise time-consuming extensive diagnostic programmes.

Alcoholic ketoacidosis is seen in chronic alcoholics who have been starving for days. This was the case in the present patient who had metabolic acidosis on admission. The differential diagnoses are primarily diabetic ketoacidosis, intoxication (salicylate, methanol, ethylene glycol and fenformin), lactate acidosis, hunger-induced ketoacidosis and uraemia. Treatment should consist of intravenous glucose and correction of the dehydration with isotonic sodium chloride.