[To maintain or to withdraw life support? Variations on the methods of ending life in a pediatric intensive care unit over a period of 6 years]

[To maintain or to withdraw life support? Variations on the methods of ending life in a pediatric intensive care unit over a period of 6 years]

Vernaz S; Casanova L; Blanc F; Lebel S; Ughetto F; Paut O

Annales Françaises D'anesthèsie Et De Rèanimation

2014

Death; end of life; Forgoing live-support; Pediatric intensive care unit; Withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatments

Since 2005, forgoing live-support (FLS) is allowed by the French law (known as the Leonetti law) for end-of-life patients only. This study aims at describing the variations over time in the use of the following methods to end life: FLS, brain death and cardiopulmonary resuscitation failure (CPR failure). It is a single retrospective study from 2007 to 2012. The Cochran-Armitage trend test is used in the statistical analysis. Over six years, 263 of the 5100 children who were hospitalized in our intensive care unit died, which represents a 5.2% mortality rate. FLS increased yearly from 31% of the deaths in 2007, to 71% in 2012 (P=0.0008). The rate of CPR failure decreased over the same period (P=0.0015). The rate of brain death remained constant. Following to the Leonetti law, FLS increase, and palliative cares develop without any increase of mortality.

2014-06

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