Dying in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU): A Retrospective Descriptive Analysis of Deaths in the ICU in a Communal Tertiary Hospital in Germany
Table 4
Withdrawal of therapy versus sex, age and advance directive. Numbers are shown as absolute numbers n and percentage (%) of all patients dying in ICU/IMC or as percentage of patients in the subgroup, e.g. all female patients or all patients between 50 and 59 years old.
Therapy withdrawal
n
Withdrawal?
IV
NIV
RRT
Catecholamines
Feeding nutrition
Other
Drugs
Yes
489
139
13
5
22
57
51
112
28.4%
2.7%
1.0%
4.5%
11.7%
10.4%
22.9%
No
350
476
484
467
432
377
438
71.6%
97.3%
99.0%
95.5%
88.3%
77.1%
89.6%
Sex
Male
266
74
8
3
10
29
29
63
27.8%
3.0%
1.1%
3.8%
10.9%
10.9%
23.7%
Female
223
65
5
2
12
28
22
49
29.1%
2.2%
0.9%
5.4%
12.6%
9.9%
22.0%
Age (years)
18–29
4
1
0
1
0
0
0
1
25.0%
0.0%
25.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
25.0%
30–39
5
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
40–49
19
6
2
0
0
1
3
6
31.6%
10.5%
0.0%
0.0%
5.3%
15.8%
31.6%
50–59
34
10
3
0
2
4
6
7
29.4%
8.8%
0.0%
5.9%
11.8%
17.6%
20.6%
60–69
75
28
3
1
6
11
9
23
37.3%
4.0%
1.3%
8.0%
14.7%
12.0%
30.7%
70–79
163
36
1
1
9
16
15
28
22.1%
0.6%
0.6%
5.5%
9.8%
9.2%
17.2%
80–89
161
51
4
1
5
23
17
41
31.7%
2.5%
0.6%
3.1%
14.3%
10.6%
25.5%
≥90
28
7
0
1
0
2
1
6
25.0%
0.0%
3.6%
0.0%
7.1%
3.6%
21.4%
Advance directive?
Yes
57
23
2
1
2
10
8
40.4%
3.5%
1.8%
3.5%
17.5%
14.0%
No
432
116
11
4
20
47
43
26.9%
2.5%
0.9%
4.6%
10.9%
10.0%
Note: “n. expl. m.” refers to “not explicitly mentioned;” IV, invasive ventilation; NIV, noninvasive ventilation; RRT, renal replacement therapy; and DNR, do not resuscitate.
