ArticleBMC palliative care2024
Fluid therapy is associated with lower care quality and higher symptom burden during last days of life of patients with cancer - a population-based register study.
Article in BMC palliative care, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
The trial behind it
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundParenteral fluid (PF) therapy of patients in end-of-life (EOL) is controversial. The purpose of this study was to assess associations between PF, quality of the EOL care process and symptom burden in dying cancer patients, using a population-based approach.
methodsThis was a nationwide retrospective register study of all adult cancer deaths with documented information on PF in the last 24 h of life as reported to the Swedish Register of Palliative Care during a three-year period (n = 41,709). Prevalence and relief of symptoms during the last week of life as well as EOL care process quality indicators were assessed in relation to PF in those patients who had a documented decision to focus on EOL care (immediately dying, n = 23,112). Odds ratios were calculated, adjusting for place of death (hospital vs. non-hospital).
resultsPF was administered to 30.9% of immediately dying patients in hospitals compared to 6.5% outside of hospitals. PF was associated with a higher likelihood for breathlessness and nausea. In patients screened for EOL symptoms with a validated instrument, PF was inversely associated with the likelihood of complete relief of breathlessness, respiratory secretions, anxiety, nausea and pain. Several palliative care quality indicators were inversely associated with PF, including EOL conversations and prescriptions of injectable drugs as needed. These associations were more pronounced in hospitals.
conclusionsParenteral fluid therapy in the last 24 h of life was associated with inferior quality of the EOL care process and with increased symptom burden in imminently dying cancer patients.
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