End-of-life decisions in an Indian intensive care unit

There is a paucity of data on end-of-life decisions (EOLD) for patients in Indian intensive care units (ICUs).

To document the end-of-life and full-support (FS) decisions among patients dying in an ICU, to compare the respective patient characteristics and to describe the process of decision-making.

Retrospective, observational.

Consecutive patients admitted to a 12-bed closed medical-surgical ICU.

Patients with EOLD discharged home or transferred to another hospital.

Demographic profile, APACHE IV at 24 h, ICU outcome, type of limitation, disease category, pre-admission functional status, reasons for EOLD, interventions and therapies within 3 days of death, time to EOLD, time to death after EOLD and ICU length of stay. Out of 88 deaths among 830 admissions, 49% were preceded by EOLD. Of these 58% had withholding of treatment, 35% had do-not-resuscitate orders (DNR) and 7% had a withdrawal decision. Mean age and APACHE IV scores were similar between EOLD and FS groups. Functional dependence before hospitalization favored EOLD. Patients receiving EOLD as opposed to FS had longer stays. Fifty-three percent of limitations were decided during the first week of ICU stay well before the time of death. Escalation of therapy within 3 days of death was less frequent in the EOLD group.

Despite societal and legal barriers, half the patients dying in the ICU received a decision to limit therapy mostly as withholding or DNR orders. These decisions evolved early in the course of stay and resulted in significant reduction of therapeutic burdens.