Tag: ethics

Fighting ‘traditional nihilism’ re haematological malignancy in ICU

A guidance group and a sounding board of 50 UK experts has published guidelines on the management and ICU admission of critically ill adult patients with haematological malignancies. Part of the driving force for this was the ‘traditional nihilism’ in the critical care community about these patients, meaning disagreements regarding the benefit of admission to ICU are not …

Continue reading

The difficulty of ‘futility’

Using local consensus on the definition of futile, Huynh et al have returned to suggest and quantify an ‘opportunity cost’ (i.e. a detriment to others due non-futile care) incurred. At a single centre, 5 unit hospital, delay in admission from A&E and delay in transfer to a tertiary ICU were examined and the impact of futile care …

Continue reading

Dignified death on the ICU

The ABCD approach to holistic care in the patient who is dying on the ICU. We know it’s not all about opiate but it’s useful to acknowledge that death needs managing as well as any other stage in a disease process.