Introduction: Life-sustaining treatments such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and admission to critical care units, if used when recovery chance was remote, may unnecessarily cause discomfort and increase cost of care. Outcomes of these treatments in chronic, refractory congestive heart failure (CHF) and metastatic cancer patients were poor. Although both conditions were the leading causes of death, previous studies indicated that hospice utilization and do-not-resuscitate orders were less common in CHF patients. To date, the use of life-sustaining treatments in these patients and the influence of do-not-resuscitate orders remains unknown.
Method: We conducted a retrospective medical record review of the patients who died in our hospital in 1999 and had discharge diagnoses of CHF or cancer. Medical records were screened for seriously ill patients according to the modified SUPPORT criteria, which included patients with CHF functional class IV or ejection fraction of 20% or less at baseline and with metastatic cancer not receiving any curative treatments. Analyses were performed using SPSS, version 9.0.
Results: There were 58 and 82 patients in CHF and cancer groups, respectively. CHF patients were older (78.8 vs. 67.3 yrs, p < .001) and stayed in the hospital longer (11.9 vs. 7.9 days, p = .014). The majority of patients in both groups received do-not-resuscitate orders before death (84% and 72%, respectively). CHF patients received do-not-resuscitate orders later than did cancer patients (6.7 vs. 2.8 days, p = .006). However, there was no significant difference in prevalence of do-not-resuscitate orders. All studied life-sustaining treatments were more common in CHF patients than in cancer patients. A subgroup analysis between CHF patients with do-not-resuscitate orders and those without do-not-resuscitate orders revealed cardiopulmonary resuscitation to be the only treatment less common in those with do-not-resuscitate orders.
Conclusions: Patients who died of chronic, refractory CHF received more life-sustaining treatments than did patients who died of metastatic cancer.