End-of-Life Decisions in Surgical Intensive Care Medicine - The Relevance of Treatment Withholding

End-of-Life Decisions in Surgical Intensive Care Medicine - The Relevance of Treatment Withholding

The purpose of this retrospective observational study is to describe the sequence of ICU-therapies that are limited and to compare characteristics and the decision making process in surgical ICU-patients.

Decisions to limit life-support therapy are common on the intensive care unit (ICU). End-of-life decisions (EOLD) underlie a dynamic process and limitation of ICU-therapies is done sequentially. Questionnaire-based and observational studies on medical ICUs and in palliative care reveal blood transfusions as the first therapy physicians withhold in EOLDs. Whether this practice also applies to surgical ICU-patients is unknown.

The purpose of this retrospective observational study is to describe the sequence of ICU-therapies that are limited and to compare characteristics and the decision making process in surgical ICU-patients.

Inclusion Criteria:

• All surgical patients admitted to the ICU All surgical patients discharged death from the ICU

Exclusion Criteria:

• All patients discharged alive from the ICU