End-of-life practices in 11 German intensive care units : Results from the ETHICUS-2 study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

End-of-life care is common in German intensive care units (ICUs) but little is known about daily practice.

Objectives

To study the practice of end-of-life care.

Methods

Prospectively planned, secondary analysis comprising the German subset of the worldwide Ethicus‑2 Study (2015-2016) including consecutive ICU patients with limitation of life-sustaining therapy or who died.

Results

Among 1092 (13.7%) of 7966 patients from 11 multidisciplinary ICUs, 967 (88.6%) had treatment limitations, 92 (8.4%) died with failed CPR, and 33 (3%) with brain death. Among patients with treatment limitations, 22.3% (216/967) patients were discharged alive from the ICU. More patients had treatments withdrawn than withheld (556 [57.5%] vs. 411 [42.5%], p < 0.001). Patients

SUBMITTER: Denke C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10624715 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature