Current opinion in anaesthesiology
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To review the recent advances in providing analgesia and sedation to intensive care unit patients that can improve outcomes, and reduce resource utilization and adverse events. ⋯ Utilizing and incorporating these new advances can improve outcomes and result in a more comfortable patient.
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Palliative sedation, the conscious induction of sleep in patients with a very short life expectancy who suffer intractable physical and existential distress, may offer the patient and his or her relatives a more peaceful dying. This technique is still subject to several ethical and medical controversies justifying a review of the recent literature on this subject. ⋯ Palliative sedation may be considered for terminally ill patients who suffer intractable symptoms. Ideally it should be included in the patient's trajectory that has been described and discussed earlier when the disease was judged to be incurable. The main goal is to offer comfort.