Aggressiveness of care in the last days of life in the emergency department of a tertiary hospital in Korea.

ABSTRACT:

Background

High-quality end-of-life (EOL) care requires both comfort care and the maintenance of dignity. However, delivering EOL in the emergency department (ED) is often challenging. Therefore, we aimed to investigate characteristics of EOL care for dying patients in the ED.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients who died of disease in the ED at a tertiary hospital in Korea between January 2018 and December 2020. We examined medical care within the last 24 h of life and advance care planning (ACP) status.

Results

Of all 222 disease-related mortalities, 140 (63.1%) were men, while 141 (63.5%) had cancer. The median age was 74 years. As for critical care, 61 (27.5%) patients received cardiopulmonary resuscitation, while 80 (36.0%) received mecha

SUBMITTER: Kim JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9170493 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature