-
J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2022
Palliative care in hospitalized middle-aged and older adults with COVID-19.
- Lyna Kyria Rodrigues Almeida, Thiago J Avelino-Silva, Débora Carneiro de Lima E Silva, Bruna A Campos, Gabriela Varela, Cristina Mara Baghelli Fonseca, Victor Lp Amorim, PizaFelipe Maia de ToledoFMTHospital Municipal Dr. Moysés Deutsch (L.K.R.D.A, D.C.D.L.S., B.A.C., G.V., C.M.B.F., V.L.A., F.M.D.T.P., L.H.D.C.) Sao Paulo, Brazil., Marlon Jr Aliberti, and Luiza Helena Degani-Costa.
- Hospital Municipal Dr. Moysés Deutsch (L.K.R.D.A, D.C.D.L.S., B.A.C., G.V., C.M.B.F., V.L.A., F.M.D.T.P., L.H.D.C.) Sao Paulo, Brazil; Laboratório de Investigação Médica em Envelhecimento (LIM-66), Serviço de Geriatria, Hospital das Clínicas HCFMUSP, Faculdade de Medicina (L.K.R.D.A., T.J.A.S., M.J.A.), Universidade de São Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
- J Pain Symptom Manage. 2022 May 1; 63 (5): 680-688.
ContextAs COVID-19 overwhelms health systems worldwide, palliative care strategies may ensure rational use of resources while safeguarding patient comfort and dignity.ObjectiveTo describe palliative care practices in hospitalized middle-aged and older adults in two of the largest COVID-19 treatment centers in Sao Paulo, Brazil.MethodsRetrospective cohort. Eligible patients were those aged 50 years or older hospitalized between March and May 2020 with a laboratory confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Palliative care implementation was defined as present if medical notes indicated a decision to limit escalation of life support measures, or when opioids or sedatives were prescribed for palliative management of symptoms.ResultsWe included 1162 participants (57% male, median 65 years). Overall, 21% were frail and 54% were treated in intensive care units, but only 17% received palliative care. Stepwise logistic regression demonstrated that age ≥80 years, dementia, history of stroke or cancer, frailty, having a PaO2/FiO2<200 or a C-reactive protein ≥150mg/dL at admission predicted palliative care implementation. Patients placed under palliative care stayed longer (13 vs.11 days) and were more likely to die in hospital (86 vs.27%). They also spent more days in ICU and received vasoactive drugs, hemodialysis, and invasive ventilation more frequently.ConclusionsOne in five middle-aged and older adults hospitalized with COVID-19 received palliative care in our cohort. Patients who were very old, multimorbid, frail, and had severe COVID-19 were more likely to receive palliative care. However, it was often delayed until advanced and invasive life support measures had already been implemented.Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Notes
Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
- Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as
*italics*
,_underline_
or**bold**
. - Superscript can be denoted by
<sup>text</sup>
and subscript<sub>text</sub>
. - Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines
1. 2. 3.
, hyphens-
or asterisks*
. - Links can be included with:
[my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
- Images can be included with:
![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
- For footnotes use
[^1](This is a footnote.)
inline. - Or use an inline reference
[^1]
to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document[^1]: This is a long footnote.
.