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Prognostication during physician-family discussions about limiting life support in intensive care units*

Critical Care MedicinePublished 4 January 2007
Douglas B. White, Ruth A. Engelberg, Marjorie D. Wenrich, Bernard Lo, J. Randall Curtis
Citations176
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score2.12
SNIP2.15

TL;DR

Prognostication occurred frequently during physician-family deliberations about whether to forego life support, but physicians did not discuss the patient’s prognosis for survival in more than one third of conferences.

Abstract

Prognostication occurred frequently during physician-family deliberations about whether to forego life support, but physicians did not discuss the patient's prognosis for survival in more than one third of conferences. Less educated families received less information about prognosis. Future studies should address whether these observations partially explain the high prevalence of family misunderstandings about prognosis in intensive care units.

Keywords

MedicineHealth Professions