Australian journal of general practice
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Review Case Reports
Palliative sedation: A safety net for the relief of refractory and intolerable symptoms at the end of life.
Evidence exists for the use of palliative sedation for people approaching the last days of life with refractory and intolerable symptoms. It is a third-line intervention that deliberately lowers the conscious state to relieve intolerable and refractory symptoms. This level of intervention is not routinely used in primary care, and there is a lack of guidelines for palliative sedation in this context. ⋯ While palliative sedation has been regarded as 'controversial' in early palliative care literature, there has been an increased effort to formulate standardised guidelines to define and ethically justify this procedure.