• The American surgeon · Feb 2002

    Withholding/withdrawal of life support in trauma patients: is there an age bias?

    • Brian R Plaisier, Paul A Blostein, Karla J Hurt, and Mark A Malangoni.
    • Trauma Slurgery Service, Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49007, USA.
    • Am Surg. 2002 Feb 1;68(2):159-62.

    AbstractOur objective was to examine patterns of withholding/withdrawal (WH/WD) of life support in trauma patients and to determine whether WD/WH of life support is used more frequently in elderly patients. This is a retrospective cohort study of injured elderly (> or = 65 years) and young patients (< 65 years) from 1994 through 1998 treated at a surgical intensive care unit in a community tertiary-care hospital. We studied the cases of 82 patients (30 elderly and 52 young patients) with WH/WD of life support after injury. Our main outcome measures were demographic and clinical characteristics of elderly and young patients undergoing WH/WD of life support after injury with an association between age and WH/WD of life support. Of 102 total trauma patient deaths 82 had WH/WD of life support. This mode was chosen in 52 (80%) patients under the age of 65 and in 30 (81%) patients age 65 or greater. Patients in the younger cohort had a higher mean Injury Severity Score and Abbreviated Injury Score of 5 (P < 0.05). The elderly cohort had a higher incidence of pre-existing disease (< 0.001). Length of stay was similar between the populations. We conclude that the elderly were no more likely to have WH/WD of life support than were younger patients. However, the older patients were less severely injured as measured by Injury Severity Score and percentage with Abbreviated Injury Score head of 5. Other factors such as the presence of pre-existing disease may influence the decision to withhold or withdraw life support to a greater degree than the actual severity of injuries.

      Pubmed     Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    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..

    hide…

What will the 'Medical Journal of You' look like?

Start your free 21 day trial now.

We guarantee your privacy. Your email address will not be shared.