Withholding and Withdrawing Life-support Therapy in an Emergency Department: Prospective Survey

Objectives: Few studies have focused on decisions to withdraw or withhold life-support therapies in the emergency department. Our objectives were to identify clinical situations where life-support was withheld or withdrawn, the criteria used by physicians to justify their decisions, the modalities necessary to implement these decisions, patient disposition, and outcome.

Design And Setting: Prospective unicenter survey in an Emergency Department of a tertiary care teaching hospital.

Patients: All non-trauma patients (n=119) for whom a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments was taken between January and September 1998.

Main Outcome Measures: Choice of criteria justifying the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments, time interval from ED admission to the decision; type of decision implemented, outcome.

Results: Fourteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-five non-trauma patients were admitted during the study period, 119 were included, mean age 75+/-13 years. Resuscitation procedures were instituted for 96 (80%) patients before a subsequent decision was taken. Physicians chose on average 6+/-2 items to justify their decision; the principal acute medical disorder and futility of care were the two criteria most often used. Median time interval to reach the decision was 187 min. Withdrawal involved 37% of patients and withholding 63% of patients. The family was involved in the decision-making process in 72% of patients. The median time interval from the decision to death was 16 h (5 min to 140 days).

Conclusion: Withdrawing and withholding life-support therapy involved elderly patients with underlying chronic cardiopulmonary disease or metastatic cancer or patients with acute non-treatable illness.