ArticleThe American journal of hospice & palliative care2022
Impact of legalization of Medical Assistance in Dying on the Use of Palliative Sedation in a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Retrospective Chart Review.
Article in The American journal of hospice & palliative care, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Demographic and clinical characteristics, practices, and outcomes of continuous palliative sedation: A multi-setting, province-wide retrospective cohort study.Palliative medicine · 2026Article
- Continuous palliative sedation until death: a qualitative study of palliative care clinicians' experiences.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- Practices of and Perspectives on Palliative Sedation Among Palliative Care Physicians in Ontario, Canada: A Mixed-Methods Study.Palliative medicine reports · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPatients approaching end of life may experience intractable symptoms managed with palliative sedation. The legalization of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) in Canada in 2016 offers a new option for relief of intolerable suffering, and there is limited evidence examining how the use of palliative sedation has evolved with the introduction of MAiD.
objectivesTo compare rates of palliative sedation at a tertiary care hospital before and after the legalization of MAiD.
methodsThis study is a retrospective chart analysis of all deaths of patients followed by the palliative care consult team in acute care, or admitted to the palliative care unit. We compared the use of palliative sedation during 1-year periods before and after the legalization of MAiD, and screened charts for MAiD requests during the second time period.
results4.7% (n = 25) of patients who died in the palliative care unit pre-legalization of MAiD received palliative sedation compared to 14.6% (n = 82) post-MAiD, with no change in acute care. Post-MAiD, 4.1% of deaths were medically-assisted deaths in the palliative care unit (n = 23) and acute care (n = 14). For patients who requested MAiD but instead received palliative sedation, the primary reason was loss of decisional capacity to consent for MAiD.
conclusionWe believe that the mainstream presence of MAiD has resulted in an increased recognition of MAiD and palliative sedation as distinct entities, and rates of palliative sedation increased post-MAiD due to greater awareness about patient choice and increased comfort with end-of-life options.
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