Time-limited trial of intensive care is more than merely life sustaining

Affiliations

¹ Intensive Care Unit, North District Hospital, 9 Po Kin Road, Sheung Shui, Hong Kong, China. ehlcheung@connect.hku.hk.
² Intensive Care Unit, North District Hospital, 9 Po Kin Road, Sheung Shui, Hong Kong, China.
³ Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, China.

Comment

Emmanuel Hei-Lok Cheung et al. Intensive Care Med. 2022 Apr.

. 2022 Apr;48(4):507-508.

doi: 10.1007/s00134-022-06644-x. Epub 2022 Feb 11.

¹ Intensive Care Unit, North District Hospital, 9 Po Kin Road, Sheung Shui, Hong Kong, China. ehlcheung@connect.hku.hk.
² Intensive Care Unit, North District Hospital, 9 Po Kin Road, Sheung Shui, Hong Kong, China.
³ Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, China.

No abstract available

Comment in

Death during life sustaining treatment must be considered a failure but can be acceptable if the treatment was proportional.
Donaldson TM. Donaldson TM. Intensive Care Med. 2022 Jul;48(7):967-968. doi: 10.1007/s00134-022-06657-6. Epub 2022 Mar 1. Intensive Care Med. 2022. PMID: 35230462 No abstract available.
Beyond failure or success: reflections on the ethical justifications for time-limited trial of intensive care.
Cheung EH, Cheung JC, Yip YY. Cheung EH, et al. Intensive Care Med. 2022 Jul;48(7):969-970. doi: 10.1007/s00134-022-06752-8. Epub 2022 May 26. Intensive Care Med. 2022. PMID: 35618922 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
The moral problems with time-limited trials at the end-of-life, especially when clinicians and patients have different goals.
Donaldson TM. Donaldson TM. Intensive Care Med. 2022 Sep;48(9):1262-1263. doi: 10.1007/s00134-022-06831-w. Epub 2022 Aug 1. Intensive Care Med. 2022. PMID: 35913639 No abstract available.

When the harms of intensive care treatment outweigh the benefits, the default use of time-limited trials is not ethically justifiable.
Donaldson TM. Donaldson TM. Intensive Care Med. 2022 Mar;48(3):377-378. doi: 10.1007/s00134-021-06607-8. Epub 2022 Jan 15. Intensive Care Med. 2022. PMID: 35032172 No abstract available.

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