[End of life care for patients with COPD]

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) is a common cause of morbidity and mortality. It currently fourth leading cause of death in world wide and importance for end of life care for end-stage patients with COPD is increasing. Patients with COPD experience acute exacerbation once disease progressed. Once patients with COPD admitted to the hospital by acute exacerbation, prognosis of these patients is poor and these patients should be considered as an end-stage COPD. When compared with advanced lung cancer patients, patients with COPD have more deterioration of quality of life, more symptoms such as despnea, general fatigue, appetiteloss, anxiety, and deterioration of activities of daily living. However, these patients with COPD are more treated with life sustained interventions, palliation for these symptoms are not sufficients. In caring patients with severe COPD, consideration should be given to implementing palliative treatments more aggressively. In order to improve end of life care for patients with advanced COPD, it is also important to establish local support system for caring these patients.