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End-of-Life Care in the Intensive Care Unit: Toward a New Concept of Futility

  • Conference paper
Intensive Care Medicine

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Abstract

A high proportion of patients who die in hospitals do so in some form of intensive care unit (ICU) [1]. As medical care is made available to growing populations, the number of patients who develop critical illness increases. Accordingly, more titrated treatment needs to be provided, in an environment that facilitates such care. Normally, only patients with a strong potential to benefit from the services of an ICU are admitted to one [2]. In a perfect system, no one would die in an ICU, except as a result of an unexpected decompensation [3]. Many intensivists believe that patients who fail to respond to intensive care should be quickly transferred to home or hospice to die [4].

From the fool’s gold mouthpiece

The hollow horn plays wasted words

Proves to warn

That he not busy being born

Is busy dying.

Bob Dylan

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Authors
  1. D. Crippen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital, Free University of Brussels, Route de Lennik 808, B-1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Louis Vincent MD, PhD, FCCM, FCCP (Head) (Head)

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Crippen, D. (2003). End-of-Life Care in the Intensive Care Unit: Toward a New Concept of Futility. In: Vincent, JL. (eds) Intensive Care Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5548-0_92

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5548-0_92

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-5550-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-5548-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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