Withdrawing and withholding treatments ICU

BACKGROUND: ICU nurses are most frequently at the patient's bedside, providing care for both patients and family members. They perform an essential role and are involved in decision-making. Despite this, research suggests that nurses have a limited role in the end-of-life decision-making process and are occasionally not involved. OBJECTIVE: Explore global ICU nurse involvement in end of life decisions based on the physician's perceptions and sub-analyses from the ETHICUS-2 study...

Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment in the PICU From the Nursing Staff's Perspective: Integrative Review Abstract: Background: Withdrawal of life sustaining measures is a common mode of treatment prior to the death of a critically ill child and has implications for all involved. The perspective of nurses has not yet been considered in this context. Aim: How do nurses experience the termination of life-sustaining measures in the paediatric intensive care unit? What is their role in this process? Methods: An integrative review was conducted to answer the research question...

OBJECTIVES: To validate the efficacy and safety of withholding antimicrobial therapy in a new cohort of children with cancer and febrile neutropenia (FN) having a demonstrated viral respiratory tract infection (RTI). METHODS: Prospective, multicenter, non-inferiority, randomized study, approved by the ethical committee, in children presenting with FN at seven hospitals in Chile, evaluated at admission for diagnosis of bacterial and viral pathogens. Children who were positive for a respiratory virus (RV), negative for a bacterial pathogen and had a favorable evolution after 48-72 hours of antimicrobial therapy were randomized to either maintain or withhold antimicrobial therapy...

BACKGROUND: Delivering intensive care therapies concordant with patients' values and preferences is considered gold standard care. To achieve this, healthcare professionals must better understand decision-making processes and factors influencing them. AIM: The aim of this study was to explore factors influencing decision-making processes about implementing and limiting intensive care therapies. DESIGN: Systematic integrative review, synthesising quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The morbidity and mortality of infants born extremely preterm varies substantially across networks, within countries and throughout the globe. Most of the literature tends to focus on the management at birth and choices around active resuscitation of extremely preterm infants. Withdrawal and withholding of life sustaining treatment (WWLST) is an important and central process in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and practices vary substantially. As such, our objective in this review was to explore whether end of life decisions also contribute to variations in the morbidity and mortality of periviable infants...

PURPOSE: Limitations of life sustaining therapies (LLST) are frequent in intensive care units (ICUs), but no previous studies have examined end-of-life (EOL) care and LLST in South Africa (SA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study evaluated LLST in SA from the data of a prospective, international, multicentre, observational study (Ethicus-2) and compared practices with countries in the rest of the world. RESULTS: LLST was relatively common in SA, and withholding was more frequent than withdrawing therapy...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to describe the results of Spanish ICUs in ETHICUS II study. DESIGN: Planned substudy of patients from ETHICUS II study. SETTING: 12 Spanish ICU. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS: Patients admitted to Spanish ICU who died or in whom a limitation of life-sustaining treatment (LLST) was decided during a recruitment period of 6 months. INTERVENTIONS: Follow-up of patients was performed until discharge from the ICU and 2 months after the decision of LLST or death...

Increasing numbers of older patients are being admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as the world's population ages. The biological process of ageing, senescence, results in altered ability to maintain normal homeostasis and organ function, including of the cardiovascular, immune, and neuromuscular systems. This contributes towards increased frailty in older patients, associated with functional limitations and increased vulnerability. Although widely defined using chronological age, the concept of "old age" is thus multifactorial, including biological, but also psychological and sociocultural aspects, which should all be taken into account when considering what is appropriate in terms of ICU admission and management...

BACKGROUND: Clinical practice guidelines on limitation of life-sustaining treatments (LST) in the intensive care unit (ICU), in the form of withholding or withdrawal of LST, state that there is no ethical difference between the two. Such statements are not uniformly accepted worldwide, and there are few studies on LST limitation in Asia. This study aimed to evaluate the predictors and outcomes of withholding and withdrawal of LST in Singapore, focusing on the similarities and differences between the two approaches...

BACKGROUND: New onset refractory status epilepticus (NORSE) is a neurologic emergency without an immediately identifiable cause. The complicated and long ICU stay of the patients can lead to perceiving a prolongation of therapies as futile. However, a recovery is possible even in severe cases. This retrospective study investigates ICU treatments, short- and long-term outcome and ethical decisions of a case series of patients with NORSE. METHODS: Overall, 283 adults were admitted with status epilepticus (SE) to the Neurocritical Care Unit of the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, between 01...

A lack of consensus resulting in severe conflicts is often observed between the stakeholders regarding their respective roles in end-of-life (EOL) decision-making in the ICU. Since the burden of these decisions lies upon the individuals, their opinions must be known by medical, judicial, legislative, and governmental authorities. Part of the solution to the issues that arise would be to examine and understand the views of the people in different societies. Hence, in this systematic review, we assessed the attitudes of the physicians, nurses, families, and the general public toward who should be involved in decision-making and influencing factors...

BACKGROUND: Life-sustaining treatment limitation (LSV) is the medical act of withdrawing or not initiating measures that are considered futile in a patient's specific situation. LSV in critically ill patients remains a difficult topic to study, due to the multitude of factors that condition it. OBJECTIVE: To determine factors related to LSV in ICU in cases of post-ICU in-hospital mortality, as well as factors associated with survival after discharge from ICU. DESIGN: Retrospective longitudinal study...

AIM: This work explores the experiences and meaning attributed by parents who underwent the decision-making process of withholding and/or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment for their newborn. METHODS: Audio-recorded face-to-face interviews were led and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Eight families (seven mothers and five fathers) whose baby underwent withholding and/or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment in three neonatal intensive care units from two regions in France were included...

BACKGROUND: The limitation of life sustaining treatments (LLST) causes ethical dilemmas even in patients faced with poor prognosis, which applies to many patients admitted to a Neurocritical Care Unit (NCCU). The effects of social and cultural aspects on LLST in an NCCU population remain poorly studied. METHODS: All NCCU patients between 01.2018 and 08.2021 were included. Medical records were reviewed for: demographics, diagnosis, severity of disease, and outcome...

Kyungpook National University Children's Hospital initiated pediatric palliative care (PPC) services in January 2019, focusing on children and adolescents with life-limiting conditions (LLC). A study examined changes in the end-of-life processes in patients with LLC before and after a PPC intervention. This study included 48 deceased patients under 18 years at the hospital, divided into two groups: January 2015 to December 2016 without PPC (25 patients, Period 1) and January 2019 to April 2022 with PPC (23 patients, Period 2)...

BACKGROUND: Decisions about life-sustaining therapy (LST) in the intensive care unit (ICU) depend on predictions of survival as well as the expected functional capacity and self-perceived quality of life after discharge, especially in very old patients. However, prognostication for individual patients in this cohort is hampered by substantial uncertainty which can lead to a large variability of opinions and, eventually, decisions about LST. Moreover, decision-making processes are often embedded in a framework of ethical and legal recommendations which may vary between countries resulting in divergent management strategies...

PURPOSE: Religious beliefs affect end-of-life practices in intensive care units (ICUs). Changes over time in end-of-life practices were not investigated regarding religions. METHODS: Twenty-two European ICUs (3 regions: Northern, Central, and Southern Europe) participated in both Ethicus-1 (years 1999-2000) and Ethicus-2 studies (years 2015-2016). Data of ICU patients who died or had limitations of life-sustaining therapy were analysed regarding changes in end-of-life practices and patient/physician religious affiliations...

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the involvement of patients who died from hematologic neoplasms in the decision-making process surrounding the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment (LST). METHODS: A total of 255 patients diagnosed with hematologic neoplasms who ultimately died following decisions related to LST during their end-of-life period at a university hospital were included in the study. Data were retrospectively obtained from electronic medical records and analyzed utilizing the chi-square test, independent t-test, and logistic regression...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to characterize differences in directives to limit treatments and discontinue invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) in elderly (65-80 years) and very elderly (> 80 years) intensive care unit (ICU) patients. METHODS: We prospectively described new written orders to limit treatments, IMV discontinuation strategies [direct extubation, direct tracheostomy, spontaneous breathing trial (SBT), noninvasive ventilation (NIV) use], and associations between initial failed SBT and outcomes in 142 ICUs from 6 regions (Canada, India, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, United States)...

BACKGROUND: There are few studies on the differences in end-of-life decisions making in critically ill patients with and without coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This study aimed to investigate the independent factors that predicted the decision to withdraw or withhold life-sustaining treatments (LST) in critically ill patients and if these decisions were based on different variables for critically ill patients with COVID-19 compared to those for critically ill patients with other diagnoses in a Swedish intensive care unit...