Recommendations for end-of-life care in the intensive care unit: The Ethics Committee of the Society of Critical Care Medicine

KEY WORDS: palliative care; intensive care; end-of-life care T hese recommendations are in-tended to provide informationand advice for clinicians whodeliver end-of-life care in in-tensive care units (ICUs). The number of deaths that occur in the ICU after the withdrawal of life support is increasing, with one recent survey finding that 90% of patients who die in ICUs now do so after a decision to limit therapy (1). Al-though there is significant variability in the frequency of withdrawal of life sup-port both within countries (2) and among cultures (3), the general trend is interna-tional in scope (4). Nevertheless, most evidence indicates that patients and fam-ilies remain dissatisfied with the car