• Gregory Luke Larkin.
• Department of Surgery and Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA. Gregory.Larkin@UTSouthwestern.edu
• Curr Opin Crit Care. 2002 Jun 1;8(3):224-9.

AbstractDespite all of the progress in reanimating patients in cardiac arrest over the last half century, resuscitation attempts usually fail to restore spontaneous circulation. Thus, the most common of all resuscitation decisions after initiation remains the decision to stop. An entire library of research and guidelines for terminating resuscitative efforts has been developed in the past decade. However, this most central decision is often left open to chance, provider preference, family wishes, futility judgments, and resource concerns-a host of subjective considerations at the bedside and beyond. This article sheds light on these considerations, acknowledging the pivotal role that resuscitation science and guidelines can play in the multifactorial decision to discontinue resuscitative efforts.

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