End-of-life practices in a tertiary intensive care unit in Saudi Arabia.
Our aim was to evaluate end-of-life practices in a tertiary intensive care unit in Saudi Arabia. A prospective observational study was conducted in the medical-surgical intensive care unit of a teaching hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Over the course of the one-year study period, 176 patients died and 77% of these deaths were preceded by end-of-life decisions. Of these, 66% made do-not-resuscitate decisions, 30% decided to withhold life support and 4% withdrew life support. These decisions were made after a median time of four days (Q1 to Q3: 1 to 9) and at least one day before death (Q1 to Q3: 1 to 4). The patients' families or surrogates were informed for 88% of the decisions and all decisions were documented in the patients' medical records. Despite religious and cultural values, more than three-quarters of the patients whose deaths were preceded by end-of-life decisions gave do-not-resuscitate decisions before death. These decisions should be made early in the patients' stay in the intensive care unit.
Department of Intensive Care Medicine, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. aldawooda@hotmail.com
Abdulaziz S
AS
Aldawood
Mohammad
M
Alsultan
Yaseen M
YM
Arabi
Salim A
SA
Baharoon
S
S
Al-Qahtani
M
M
Al-Qahtani
Samir H
SH
Haddad
Hasan M
HM
Al-Dorzi
Hamdan
H
Al-Jahdali
Hamdan A
HA
Jahdali
Abdulaleem
A
Alatassi
Asgar H
AH
Rishu
D000368:Aged; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods*; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016414:Resuscitation Orders; D012529:Saudi Arabia; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D028761:Withholding Treatment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data