Palliative Care for Patients Dying in the Intensive Care Unit with Chronic Lung Disease Compared with Metastatic Cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Palliative care has been focused largely on patients with cancer, and yet patients with chronic lung diseases also have high morbidity and mortality. The majority of deaths in intensive care units (ICUs) follow decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments, suggesting that palliative care is critically important in this setting.

Objectives

We explored differences in receipt of elements of palliative care among patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who die in ICUs compared with patients with cancer.

Methods

We identified patients with COPD, ILD, or metastatic cancer who died in the ICUs of 15 Seattle-area hospitals between 2003 and 2008. We used robust multivariable logistic and linear re

SUBMITTER: Brown CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5018894 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature