• Acta Anaesthesiol Scand · Sep 2022

    Observational Study

    "Do not resuscitate" order and end-of-life treatment in a cohort of deceased in a Norwegian University Hospital.

    • Hans F L van der Werff, Torstein H Michelet, Olav M Fredheim, and Siri Steine.
    • Department of Palliative Medicine, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway.
    • Acta Anaesthesiol Scand. 2022 Sep 1; 66 (8): 100910151009-1015.

    BackgroundA "Do not resuscitate" (DNR) order implies that cardiopulmonary resuscitation will not be started. Absent or delayed DNR orders in advanced chronic disease may indicate suboptimal communication about disease stage, prognosis, and treatment goals. The study objective was to determine clinical practice and patient involvement regarding DNR and the prevalence of life-prolonging treatment in the last week of life.MethodsA cross-sectional observational study was made of a cohort of 315 deceased from a large general hospital in Norway. Data on DNR and other treatment limitations, life-prolonging treatment in the last week of life, and cause of death were obtained from medical records.ResultsA DNR order was documented for 287 (91%) patients. Almost half the DNR orders, 142 (49%), were made during the last 7 days of life. The main causes of death were cancer (31%), infectious diseases (31%), and cardiovascular diseases (19%). The most frequent life-prolonging treatments during the last week of life were intravenous fluids in 221 patients (70%) and antibiotics in 198 (63%). During the last week of life, 103 (36%) patients received ICU treatment. Death by cancer (odds ratio 2.5, 95% confidence interval 1.24-5.65) and DNR decision made by a palliative care physician (odds ratio 3.4, 95% CI 1.21-3.88) were predictors of not receiving life-prolonging treatment.ConclusionThe findings of a high prevalence of life-prolonging treatment in the last week of life and DNR orders being made close to the time of death indicate that decisions about limiting life-prolonging treatment are often postponed until the patient's death is imminent.© 2022 The Authors. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica Foundation.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…