|
KMID : 0604020150300020073
|
|
Korean Journal of Critical Care Medicine
2015 Volume.30 No. 2 p.73 ~ p.81
|
|
|
Evaluation of Informed Consent for Withholding and Withdrawal of Life Support in Korean Intensive Care Units
|
|
Park Jin-Ha
Koh Shin-Ok
Cho Jin-Sun
Na Sung-Won
|
|
|
Abstract
|
|
|
Background: The goal of this study was to analyze the process and characteristics of withholding or withdrawal of life support (WLS)in Korean intensive care units (ICUs).
Methods: This was a single-centered retrospective analysis of patients who died in the ICUs of a tertiary hospital in Korea from Januaryto December 2012. WLS informed consents and clinical data were analyzed.
Results: Of 285 deaths during the study period, informed consents for WLS were obtained from 228 patients (80.0%). All WLS decisionswere made by family members after the patient’s loss of decision-making capacity. Decisions were made most frequently by thepatient’s son (50.6%). Patients in the WLS group were older than those in the non-WLS group, and older age was associated with theWLS decision. Thirty-seven patients (16.2%) died within one hour of WLS approval, and 182 patients (79.8%) died on the day of WLSapproval. The most frequently withheld life support modality was chest compression (100%), followed by defibrillation (95.9%) andpacemaker insertion (63.3%).
Conclusions: Aggressive and invasive life support measures were those most frequently withheld or withdrawn by decision-makersin Korean ICUs. The most common proxy was the son, rather than the spouse.
|
|
|
KEYWORD
|
|
|
informed consent, intensive care units, life support care, withholding treatment
|
|
|
FullTexts / Linksout information
|
|
|
|
|
Listed journal information
|
|
  
|