Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: A recent debate in the critical care literature concerns whether it is appropriate to provide "anesthesia" to patients who are undergoing compassionate extubation when a prolonged course of mechanical ventilation is no longer expected to provide benefit.Most of these patients will die following extubation.J. Andrew Billings has argued compellingly that many patients suffer during this process [1], and that the only way to prevent such suffering is to anesthetize the patients prior to extubating them.In a counterpoint article, Robert Truog and colleagues [2] believe that, while general anesthesia (or at least deep sedation) might sometimes be indicated, administering it to all patients when mechanical ventilation is withdrawn would be problematic.They emphasize that it is better to base care on the clinical circumstances of the individual patient and the values of the patient and family.
Source: The AMA Journal of Ethic
Author: Wynne Morrison
Institution: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Language: English
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W51077340