ArticleAnesthesiology research and practice2020
Dying in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU): A Retrospective Descriptive Analysis of Deaths in the ICU in a Communal Tertiary Hospital in Germany.
Article in Anesthesiology research and practice, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Prone position for acute respiratory failure in adults.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2015Pooled it
- Article
- How to Evaluate Hospital Care in the Dying Phase-Development of a Data Extraction Tool for Retrospective Medical Record Analysis.Journal of evaluation in clinical practice · 2025Article
- Experiences of providing end-of-life care in adult intensive care units: a qualitative study.BMC nursing · 2025Article
- Incidence and predictors of mortality among patients admitted to adult intensive care unit at public hospitals in Western Ethiopia: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in medicine · 2024Article
- Translation of patients' advance directives in intensive care units: are we there yet?Journal of intensive care · 2023Review
- Article
- End-of-life decisions: A focus group study with German health professionals from human and veterinary medicine.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2023Article
- The Impact of Signing Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders on the Use of Non-Beneficial Life-Sustaining Treatments for Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Retrospective Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundModern intensive care methods led to an increased survival of critically ill patients over the last decades. But an unreflected application of modern intensive care measures might lead to prolonged treatment for incurable diseases, and an inadaequate or too aggressive therapy can prolong the dying process of patients. In this study, we analysed end-of-life decisions regarding withholding and withdrawal of intensive care measures in a German intensive care unit (ICU) of a communal tertiary hospital.
methodsPatient datasets of all adult patients dying in an ICU or an intermediate care unit (IMC) in a tertiary communal hospital (Klinikum Hanau, Germany) between 01.01.2011 and 31.12.2012 were analysed for withholding and withdrawal of intensive care measures.
resultsDuring the two-year period, 1317 adult patients died in Klinikum Hanau. Of these, 489 (37%) died either in an ICU/IMC unit. The majority of those deceased patients (
conclusionsAbout one-third of patients dying in the hospital died in ICU/IMC. At least one life-sustaining therapy was limited/withdrawn in more than 60% of those patients. Withholding of a therapy was more common than active therapy withdrawal. Ventilation and renal replacement therapy were withdrawn in less than 5% of patients, respectively.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.