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Updated: Oct 5, 2025

Guidelines for Elective Pediatric Fiberoptic Intubation
Published on: January 17, 2011
Guidelines regarding ineffective maintenance of organ functions (futile therapy) in paediatric intensive care units
Alicja Bartkowska-Śniatkowska1, Elżbieta Byrska-Maciejasz2, Maciej Cettler3
1Department of Paediatric Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
Insights
New guidelines address futile therapy in pediatric intensive care. These expert consensus recommendations focus on managing children when treatments are ineffective, prioritizing comfort and dignity.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric critical care medicine
- Medical ethics
Background:
- Guidelines for managing ineffective treatment in children exist in Poland.
- Specific challenges of futile therapy in pediatric anesthesiology and intensive care units require separate consideration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish principles for managing children in pediatric anesthesiology and intensive care units where therapeutic options are exhausted.
- To provide guidance on suspected futile therapy and the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment.
Main Methods:
- Development of guidelines based on expert consensus.
- Focus on principles for managing pediatric patients with suspected futile therapy.
Main Results:
- The guidelines outline principles for decision-making regarding futile therapy in pediatric intensive care.
- Emphasis on collective decision-making, respecting child's dignity, and palliative care.
Conclusions:
- The guidelines provide a framework for managing futile therapy in pediatric anesthesiology and intensive care.
- Recommendations are based on expert consensus due to limited evidence-based data.
Abstract:
In Poland, guidelines for the management of ineffective treatment of children in neonatal and paediatric departments developed by the Polish Neonatal Society and the Polish Paediatric Society, have been published. The specific problems of futile therapy in paediatric anaesthesiology and intensive care units should be defined and solved separately. For this purpose, the guidelines presented below were prepared. They present the principles for managing children for whom therapeutic options available in paedia-tric anaesthesiology and intensive care units have been exhausted and ineffectiveness of maintaining organ functions, i.e. futile therapy, has been suspected. The decision to withdraw futile therapy of a child is undoubtedly one of the most difficult for both doctors and parents, and for this reason, it should be made collectively, respecting the dignity of the child and his/her parents or legal representatives, and continuing the management aimed at relieving the child's pain and suffering, as well as minimising anxiety and fear. Due to the small amount of reliable evidence-based data, the guidelines constitute the consensus of the Group of Experts and are dedicated to minor patients treated in paediatric anaesthesiology and intensive care units.
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