title: Defining futility in neonatal intensive care.
abstract: This article presents an initial conceptualization of futility in neonatal intensive care in an attempt to stimulate thoughtful debate an further development of the concept. Futility is defined within the context of the infant's response to a trial of therapy for extreme prematurity. Substantial criteria for determining whether futility has been reached focus on whether the infant has sustained physiologic complications that have been shown in follow-up studies to be related to mortality and significant morbidity.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing, Austin, USA.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Penticuff
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal; D018447:Medical Futility; D017283:Neonatal Nursing; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States; D028761:Withholding Treatment