ArticleInfection control and hospital epidemiology2024
Analysis of microbiological tests in patients withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment at the end stage of life in 2 Korean hospitals.
Article in Infection control and hospital epidemiology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk-benefit balance of blood cultures among patients with stage IV cancer in unplanned admission: a nationwide propensity score-weighted study in Japan.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveWe evaluated the adequacy of microbiological tests in patients withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (WLST) at the end stage of life.
settingThe study was conducted at 2 tertiary-care referral hospitals in Daegu, Republic of Korea.
designRetrospective cross-sectional study.
methodsDemographic findings, clinical and epidemiological characteristics, statistics of microbiological tests, and microbial species isolated from patients within 2 weeks before death were collected in 2 tertiary-care referral hospitals from January to December 2018. We also reviewed the antimicrobial treatment that was given within 3 days of microbiological testing in patients on WLST.
resultsOf the 1,187 hospitalized patients included, 905 patients (76.2%) had WLST. The number of tests per 1,000 patient days was higher after WLST than before WLST (242.0 vs 202.4). Among the category of microbiological tests, blood cultures were performed most frequently, and their numbers per 1,000 patient days before and after WLST were 95.9 and 99.0, respectively. The positive rates of blood culture before and after WLST were 17.2% and 18.0%, respectively.
conclusionsMany unnecessary microbiological tests are being performed in patients with WLST within 2 weeks of death. Microbiological testing should be performed carefully and in accordance with the patient's treatment goals.
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