• Daniel J Jakobson, Leonid A Eidelman, T M Worner, Arieh Eden Oppenheim, Reuven Pizov, and Charles L Sprung.
• Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, PO Box 12000, Jerusalem, Israel 91120, USA.
• Chest. 2004 Dec 1;126(6):1969-73.

IntroductionOver the last several years, there have been legal decisions and changes in medical directives concerning end-of-life decisions in Israel.MethodsThe data were compared to evaluate the changes in the frequency and types of forgoing of life-sustaining treatment (FLST) in patients who were admitted to the ICU during period I (November 1994 to July 1995) and period II (January 1998 to January 1999).ResultsDuring period I, there were 385 ICU admissions, and during period II there were 627 ICU admissions. In period I, FLST or death occurred in 13.5% of patients, and in 12% in period II. There was no significant difference in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (9% vs 13%, respectively), withholding therapy (90% vs 91%, respectively), or withdrawing therapy (0% vs 0%, respectively) between the two study periods.ConclusionsThere was no significant change in the frequency or types of FLST in an Israeli ICU between 1994 and 1998, despite passage of a new Patients' Rights Law and the issuing of a Ministry of Health directive on the treatment of the terminally ill, both of which occurred in 1996, and recent district court decisions favoring the termination of life-sustaining therapies.

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