[LIMITATION OF THE THERAPEUTIC EFFORT: A CLINICAL PERSPECTIVE]

There is a clear trend in the past years, dies in the environment of the patient's home. The seemingly paradoxical fact that the intensive care units are produced at the same time use them more and more, in an attempt by patients and relatives run down facilities that offer the most advanced technologies. In many cases the UCI can be considered as a therapeutic trial, which occasionally fails. At this moment occurs a fundamental step, from care to restore health to palliative care, whose main objective is to ensure the comfort of the patient. The practice of the limitation of the therapeutic effort, it is a common practice in.patients who die in the ICU, and scientific societies involved, have made recommendations aimed at that this process be carried out, wherever possible, with the knowledge of the family. A restful communication, with time to listen and ask, in an atmosphere of privacy, will reduce the emotional pressure and sequelae in relatives and doctors.