RT journal article
T1 Survival Outcomes in Palliative Sedation Based on Referring Versus On-Call Physician Prescription
A1 Lojo Cruz, Cristina
A1 Mora Delgado, Juan
A1 Rivas Jiménez, Víctor
A1 Carmona Espinazo, F.
A1 López Sáez, José Juan Bosco
A2 Medicina
K1 palliative care
K1 terminal care
K1 deep sedation
K1 quality of health care
K1 attitude of health personnel
K1 physician’s role
AB This study sought to determine the survival duration of patients who underwent palliativesedation, comparing those who received prescriptions from referring physicians versus on-callphysicians. It included all patients over 18 years old who died in the Palliative Care, InternalMedicine, and Oncology units at the Hospital Universitario of Jerez de la Frontera between 1 January2019, and 31 December 2019. Various factors were analyzed, including age, gender, oncologicalor non-oncological disease, type of primary tumor and refractory symptoms. Statistical analysiswas employed to compare survival times between patients who received palliative sedation fromreferring physicians and those prescribed by on-call physicians, while accounting for other potentialconfounding variables. This study revealed that the median survival time after the initiation ofpalliative sedation was 25 h, with an interquartile range of 8 to 48 h. Notably, if the sedation wasprescribed by referring physicians, the median survival time was 30 h, while it decreased to 17 h whenprescribed by on-call physicians (RR 0.357; 95% CI 0.146–0.873; p = 0.024). Furthermore, dyspneaas a refractory symptom was associated with a shorter survival time (RR 0.307; 95% CI 0.095–0.985;p = 0.047). The findings suggest that the on-call physician often administered palliative sedation torapidly deteriorating patients, particularly those experiencing dyspnea, which likely contributed tothe shorter survival time following sedation initiation. This study underscores the importance ofcareful patient selection and prompt initiation of palliative sedation to alleviate suffering.
PB MDPI
SN 2077-0383
YR 2023
FD 2023-08-09
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32141
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32141
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 10-may-2026