Prinicples and Practice of Limiting Life-Sustaining Therapies

Andrej Michalsen, Jan Bakker, Charles L. Sprung, Sabine Reimund, Armand Girbes

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Decisions regarding the extent of treatment and the application of life-sustaining therapies in intensive care medicine maybe unambiguous at times: the patient will either clearly benefit from such therapies or clearly not. However, for many critically ill or injured patients, the “cutoff” between foreseeable benefit and untoward suffering is not as crystal clear considering scare information and time constraints. Even if the benefits of life-sustaining therapies are undisputed at the time of their implementation, their side effects, such as pain, anxiety, and confusion, as well as unforeseen complications may change the balance of benefits and harm during treatment in an intensive care unit. Therefore, considerable communicational, ethical, and legal challenges may arise as to the potentially irrevocable limitation of life-sustaining therapies. Subsequently, clinicians need to familiarize themselves with the respective reasoning, prerequisites, and practical implementation.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLessons from the ICU
PublisherSpringer Nature
Pages81-94
Number of pages14
VolumePart F1176
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Publication series

NameLessons from the ICU
VolumePart F1176

Keywords

  • Clinical ethics
  • Critical care
  • Ethics
  • Intensive care medicine
  • Limitation
  • Limiting life-sustaining therapies

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