Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Sep 18;27(1):355.
doi: 10.1186/s13054-023-04622-3.

Recommendations on palliative care aspects in intensive care medicine

Guido Michels  1 , Manuela Schallenburger  2 , Martin Neukirchen  3   4   5 ; ICU Palliative Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations
Review

Recommendations on palliative care aspects in intensive care medicine

Guido Michels et al. Crit Care. .

Abstract

Background: The timely integration of palliative care is important for patients suffering from various advanced diseases with limited prognosis. While a German S-3-guideline on palliative care exists for patients with incurable cancer, a recommendation for non-oncological patients and especially for integration of palliative care into intensive care medicine is missing to date.

Method: Ten German medical societies worked on recommendations on palliative care aspects in intensive care in a consensus process from 2018 to 2023.

Results: Based on the german consensus paper, the palliative care aspects of the respective medical disciplines concerning intensive care are addressed. The recommendations partly refer to general situations, but also to specific aspects or diseases, such as geriatric issues, heart or lung diseases, encephalopathies and delirium, terminal renal diseases, oncological diseases and palliative emergencies in intensive care medicine. Measures such as non-invasive ventilation for symptom control and compassionate weaning are also included.

Conclusion: The timely integration of palliative care into intensive care medicine aims to improve quality of life and symptom control and also takes into acccount the often urgently needed support for patients' highly stressed relatives.

Keywords: Early integration; Intensive care; Palliative care; Palliative medicine; Quality of life; Timely integration.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors do not have any conflicts of interest in connection with this consensus paper. Functions of the authors in the respective societies and further information can be found in the online long version.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Simon ST, Pralong A, Radbruch L, Bausewein C, Voltz R. The palliative care of patients with incurable cancer. Deutsches Arzteblatt international. 2020;116(7):108–115. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Leitlinienprogramm Onkologie (2019) Erweiterte S3-Leitlinie Palliativmedizin für Patienten mit einer nicht-heilbaren Krebserkrankung: Langversion 2.0 – August 2019, AWMF-Registernummer: 128/001-OL: Leitlinie (Langversion). Leitlinienprogramm Onkologie. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart.
    1. Lyngaa T, Christiansen CF, Nielsen H, Neergaard MA, Jensen AB, Laut KG, Johnsen SP. Intensive care at the end of life in patients dying due to non-cancer chronic diseases versus cancer: a nationwide study in Denmark. Crit Care. 2015;19(1):1–9. doi: 10.1186/s13054-015-1124-1. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rubenfeld GD. Beyond ethical dilemmas: improving the quality of end-of-life care in the intensive care unit. Crit Care. 2002;7(1):1–3. doi: 10.1186/cc1866. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Afshar K, Geiger K, Müller-Mundt G, Bleidorn J, Schneider N. Generalist palliative care for non-cancer patients. Der Schmerz. 2021;35(3):161–171. doi: 10.1007/s00482-016-0135-4. - DOI - PubMed