Click Here to return To Results

 

Ordering & Admin of Sedatives & Analgesics During Withholding & Withdrawal of Life Support from Critically Ill Pts JAMA 267:949-953, Wilson,W.C.,et al, 1992 See this aricle in Pubmed Article Abstract Drugs were given to 75%of patients during withholding and withdrawal of life support.Patients who did not receive medication were comatose and considered incapable of benefiting from sedation and analgesia.The median time until death following the initiation of the withholding or withdrawal of life support was 3.5 hours in the patients who received drugs and 1.3 hours in those patients who did not(P,not significant).Physicians ordered drugs to decrease pain in 88%of patients,to decrease anxiety in 85%,to decrease air hunger in 76%,to comfort families in 82%,and to hasten death in 39%;in no instance was hastening death the only reason cited.The amounts of benzodiazepines and opiates averaged 2.2 mg/h of diazepam and 3.3 mg/h of morphine sulfate in the 24 hours before withholding and withdrawal of life support and 9.8 mg/h and 11.2 mg/h in the 24 hours thereafter(P<.025 and P<.001,respectively).Large doses of sedatives and analgesics were ordered primarily to relieve pain and suffering during the withholding and withdrawal of life support,and death was not hastened by drug administration.

Related Tags

(click to filter results - removes previous filter) analgesic life support,withdrawal of life support,withholding of morphine sedation treatment of neurologic disorder valium

Click Here to return To Results