Assessment of the Interest of ANI in the Non-communicating Patient in Palliative Care

Assessment of the Interest of ANI in the Non-communicating Patient in Palliative Care

Comfort evaluation is one of the major challenges in the palliative care setting, particularly when it comes to non-communicative patients. ANI monitoring is a non-invasive and painless technique which evaluates the parasympathetic tone activity through heart rate variability. It has proven reliable for pain assessment during general anesthesia (GA) or for sedated critically ill patients. The parasympathetic activity seems to be a good reflect of the patient's comfort, implicating stress and anxiety.

So, the ANI could be an interesting tool to assess the comfort of non-communicating end-of-life patients.

That is why the goal of our study is to assess the interest of ANI to assess the comfort of non-communicating patients hospitalized in palliative care during a painful care by comparing the ANI measure to the CPOT scale realised by the nurses in a blind manner.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Hospitalized in palliative care Non-communicating patients (Glasgow ≤ 10)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Non sinusal heart rate
• Respiratory rate < 9/min
• Treated by inotropes
• Pace-maker
• Patient in agonal phase
• Opposition from the guardian