Unmet Needs for Palliation in Fibrotic Interstitial Lung Disease

Chronic fibrotic interstitial lung disease (ILD) forms a substantial proportion of disabling lung diseases and leads to significant morbidity and mortality. The mortality of these patients when admitted to the Intensive Care Unit with acute respiratory worsening requiring mechanical ventilation can reach up to 90%. Indian law does not allow the physician to make the final decision about mechanical ventilation, we are forced to follow the wishes of the family despite knowing the extremely poor outcome of aggressive intervention and invasive ventilation. Patients more often become ventilator dependent and do not gain much regarding the quality of life with mechanical ventilation. Hence, there is a desperate need for palliative support for these patients with advance care planning to reduce the suffering of these patients toward the end of life. The article describes various methods by which the decision making process of mechanical ventilation could be made simpler and acceptable to the patient and the families of fibrotic Interstitial lung disease patients and also the dilemma faced by chest physician in India with virtually no prior end of life planning and no clear guidelines on ventilation when it comes to palliation of patients with advanced ILD.