Incidence and Risk Model Development for Severe Tachypnea Following Terminal Extubation

Care of the Patient Nearing the End of Life in the Neurointensive Care Unit

BACKGROUND

Neurologically critically ill patients present with unique disease trajectories, prognostic uncertainties, and challenges to end-of-life (EOL) care. Acute brain injuries place these patients at risk for underrecognized symptoms and unmet EOL management needs, which can negatively affect their quality of care and lead to complicated grief in surviving loved ones. To care for patients nearing the EOL in the neurointensive care unit, health care clinicians must consider neuroanatomic localization, barriers to symptom assessment and management, unique aspects of the dying process, and EOL management needs.

AIM

We aim to define current best practices, barriers, and future directions for EOL care of the neurologically critically ill patient.

Observations from Optimizing an Electronic Order Set for Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Treatment

Background: Withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment (WLST) is a process with unique pressure for all involved. The use of an electronic order set can facilitate best care. Objective: To assess utilization of a WLST order set and time to inpatient death before and after optimization. Design: A retrospective chart review for 12-month periods before and after enhancements to a WLST order set. Setting/Subjects: Multicenter study within an American, not-for-profit health care system of inpatient decedents July 2017-June 2018 and April 2021-March 2022 with orders placed via WLST order set. Measurements: Co-primary outcomes included order set utilization and time from activation of orders to patient death. Descriptive post hoc analyses featured demographics, palliative consultation, ordering clinician type/specialty, and COVID-19. Results: A total of 1949 patients had orders placed via the WLST order set and died in-hospital. Compared with the 2017-2018 period, use increased 35.8% in 2021-2022. Time to death after release of orders was significantly longer for the 2021-2022 group (4.4 vs. 3.7 hours). Demographic details included nurse practitioners (39%) as most frequent WLST order set utilizer and palliative consultation in 46% of terminal hospitalizations. Among decedents with consultation, palliative clinicians were the WLST order set utilizer for 47% of cases (i.e., 21% of all WLST order set utilizations). The median time to death was significantly longer when orders were placed by a palliative clinician (4.5 hours) compared with nonpalliative specialists (3.9 hours). COVID-19 was a hospital diagnosis for 29% of decedents in the 2021-2022 group. Conclusions: In the emotionally and cognitively intense process that is WLST, an order set provides a modifiable panel of defaults. Our experience highlights the power in guiding primary palliative care for WLST in the hospital setting and suggests that advanced practice providers and nonpalliative clinicians, as primary utilizers, be integral in the design of a WLST order set.

An Approach to Caring for Patients and Family of Patients Dying in the ICU

TOPIC IMPORTANCE

Death is common in the ICU and often occurs after a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining therapies. Care of the dying is a core skill for ICU clinicians, requiring expert communication, primarily with family of critically ill patients.

REVIEW FINDINGS

Limited high-quality evidence supports specific practices related to the care of dying patients in the ICU; thus, many of the recommendations that exist are based on expert opinion. Value exists in sharing a practical approach to caring for patients during the dying process, including topics to be addressed with family members, rationales for recommended care, and strategies for implementing comfort measures only. Through dedicated preparation and planning, clinicians can help family members navigate this intense experience.

SUMMARY

After a decision had been made to discontinue life-sustaining therapies, family members need to be given a clear description of comfort measures only and provided with additional detail about what it entails, including therapies or interventions to be discontinued, monitoring during the dying process, and common features of the dying process. Order sets can be a valuable resource for ensuring that adequate analgesia and sedation are available and the care plan is enacted properly. To achieve a good death for patients, a collaborative effort among members of the care team is essential.

Evidence Guiding Withdrawal of Mechanical Ventilation at the End of Life: A Review

OBJECTIVE

Distress at the end of life in the intensive care unit (ICU) is common. We reviewed the evidence guiding symptom assessment, withdrawal of mechanical ventilation (WMV) process, support for the ICU team, and symptom management among adults, and specifically older adults, at end of life in the ICU.

SETTING AND DESIGN

Systematic search of published literature (January 1990-December 2021) pertaining to WMV at end of life among adults in the ICU setting using PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed.

PARTICIPANTS

Adults (age 18 and over) undergoing WMV in the ICU.

MEASUREMENTS

Study quality was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach.

RESULTS

Out of 574 articles screened, 130 underwent full text review, and 74 were reviewed and assessed for quality. The highest quality studies pertained to use of validated symptom scales during WMV. Studies of the WMV process itself were generally lower quality. Support for the ICU team best occurs via structured communication and social supports. Dyspnea is the most distressing symptom, and while high quality evidence supports the use of opiates, there is limited evidence to guide implementation of their use for specific patients.

CONCLUSION

High quality studies support some practices in palliative WMV, while gaps in evidence remain for the WMV process, supporting the ICU team, and medical management of distress. Future studies should rigorously compare WMV processes and symptom management to reduce distress at end of life.

Palliative Extubation: A Discussion of Practices and Considerations

Palliative extubation (PE), also known as compassionate extubation, is a common event in the critical care setting and an important aspect of end-of-life care.1 In a PE, mechanical ventilation is discontinued. Its goal is to honor the patient's preferences, optimize comfort, and allow a natural death when medical interventions, including maintenance of ventilatory support, are not achieving desired outcomes. If not done effectively, PE can cause unintended physical, emotional, psychosocial, or other stress for patients, families, and healthcare staff. Studies show that PE is done with much variability across the globe, and there is limited evidence of best practice. Nevertheless, the practice of PE increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic due to the surge of dying mechanically ventilated patients. Thus, the importance of effectively conducting a PE has never been more crucial. Some studies have provided guidelines for the process of PE. However, our goal is to provide a comprehensive review of issues to consider before, during, and after a PE. This paper highlights the core palliative skills of communication, planning, symptom assessment and management, and debriefing. Our aim is to better prepare healthcare workers to provide quality palliative care during PEs, most especially when facing future pandemics.

End-Of-Life Care in the Potential Donor after Circulatory Death: A Systematic Review

Background

Donation after circulatory death (DCD) is becoming increasingly common, yet little is known about the way potential donors receive end-of-life care.

Purpose

The aims of this systematic review are to describe the current practice in end-of-life care for potential donors and identify metrics that are being used to assess discomfort among these patients.

Research design and Study Sample

This review encompasses published literature between June 1, 2000 and June 31, 2020 of end-of-life care received by potential DCD patients. The population of interest was defined as patients eligible for Maastracht classification III donation after circulatory death for a solid organ transplantation. Outcomes examined included: analgesic or palliative protocols, and surrogates of discomfort (eg dyspnea, agitation).

Results

Among 141 unique articles, 27 studies were included for full review. The primary reason for exclusion was lack of protocol description, or lack of reporting on analgesic medications. No primary research studies specifically examined distress in the DCD eligible population. Numerous professional guidelines were identified. Surveys of critical care practitioners identified concerns regarding the impact of symptom management on hastening the dying process in the DCD population as a potential barrier to end-of-life palliative treatment.

Conclusions

There is a paucity of empirical evidence for end-of-life symptom assessment and management for DCD patients. Key evidence gaps identified for DCD include the need for: i) a multidisciplinary structure of treatment teams and preferred environment for DCD, ii) objective tools for monitoring of distress in this patient population, and iii) evidence guiding the administration of analgesic medications following withdrawal of life sustaining therapy.

Palliative Ventilator Withdrawal Practices in an Inpatient Hospice Unit

Background

Palliative ventilator withdrawal (PVW) involves removal of mechanical ventilation in patients not expected to survive to allow a peaceful death. This process traditionally occurs in Intensive Care Units (ICU) and recently has evolved to occur in Inpatient Hospice and Palliative Care Units (IPU).

Objectives

To describe the process and response of patients undergoing PVW in an IPU setting.

Methods

This is a longitudinal observational cohort study of adult patients who underwent PVW in an IPU from January 2021 through March 2022.

Results

Among 25 enrolled subjects, median age was 68 (IQR 62.5-76.5) years and 14 (56%) were females. Median time from PVW to death was 16.8 (IQR 2.6-100) hours. A registered nurse and attending physician were present in all the cases, while a respiratory therapist was present in 20 (80%) and chaplain in 9 (36%) of the cases. Before PVW, opioids and benzodiazepines were administered to 24 (96%) patients. Post PVW, respiratory distress was noted among 16 (64%) patients and medication was given to 15 (60%) patients for respiratory distress. There was a significant association between the presence of respiratory distress and administration of medication within 30 minutes after PVW ( P = .009). The rituals performed during PVW were reciting prayers for 11 (44%), playing music for 8 (32%), and observing silence for 6 (24%) of the patients.

Conclusion

This study describes the PVW practices in an IPU setting where a multidisciplinary team was present during PVW for most of the cases and two-third of the patients undergoing PVW experienced respiratory distress immediately after PVW.

Estimation of Tidal Volume Using Load Cells on a Hospital Bed

Although respiratory failure is one of the primary causes of admission to intensive care, the importance placed on measurement of respiratory parameters is commonly overshadowed compared to cardiac parameters. With the increased demand for unobtrusive yet quantifi- able respiratory monitoring, many technologies have been proposed recently. However, there are challenges to be addressed for such technologies to enable widespread use. In this work, we explore the feasibility of using load cell sensors embedded on a hospital bed for monitoring respi- ratory rate (RR) and tidal volume (TV). We propose a globalized machine learning (ML)-based algorithm for estimating TV without the requirement of subject-specific calibration or training. In a study of 15 healthy subjects performing respiratory tasks in four different postures, the outputs from four load cell channels and the reference spirometer were recorded simultaneously. A signal processing pipeline was implemented to extract features that capture respira- tory movement and the respiratory effects on the cardiac (i.e., ballistocardiogram, BCG) signals. The proposed RR estimation algorithm achieved a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.6 breaths per minute (brpm) against the ground truth RR from the spirometer. The TV estimation results demonstrated that combining all three axes of the low- frequency force signals and the BCG heartbeat features best quantifies the respiratory effects of TV. The model resulted in a correlation and RMSE between the estimated and true TV values of 0.85 and 0.23 L, respectively, in the posture independent model without electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. This study suggests that load cell sensors already existing in certain hospital beds can be used for convenient and continuous respiratory monitoring in general care settings.