Ethical issues in cardiac arrest and acute cardiac care: a European perspective

Author(s):  
Jean-Louis Vincent

Acute cardiac syndromes are common and responsible for considerable mortality and morbidity. Decision making in such patients can be difficult clinically but can also be complex and challenging from an ethical perspective. This chapter reviews some of the ethical problems, including organ donation and withholding/withdrawing, that can occur in the acutely ill adult cardiac patient, starting with a brief look at the ethical principles that should guide our decision making: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and distributive justice. The role of advance directives and considerations related to family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation will also be discussed. With the increasing incidence and prevalence of coronary artery disease worldwide, the number of patients with cardiac arrest and requiring acute cardiac care is going to increase, and doctors will increasingly be faced with difficult ethical decisions associated with these patients. Open discussion and debate about these issues and good communication among patients, family members, and members of the health care team are essential to ensure that all patients receive the best possible end-of-life care.

Author(s):  
Jean-Louis Vincent

Acute cardiac syndromes are common and responsible for considerable mortality and morbidity. Decision making in such patients can be difficult clinically but can also be complex and challenging from an ethical perspective. This chapter reviews some of the ethical problems, including organ donation and withholding/withdrawing, that can occur in the acutely ill adult cardiac patient, starting with a brief look at the ethical principles that should guide our decision making: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and distributive justice. The role of advance directives and considerations related to family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation will also be discussed. With the increasing incidence and prevalence of coronary artery disease worldwide, the number of patients with cardiac arrest and requiring acute cardiac care is going to increase, and doctors will increasingly be faced with difficult ethical decisions associated with these patients. Open discussion and debate about these issues and good communication among patients, family members, and members of the health care team are essential to ensure that all patients receive the best possible end-of-life care.


Author(s):  
Jean-Louis Vincent ◽  
Jacques Creteur

Acute cardiac syndromes are common and responsible for considerable mortality and morbidity. Decision making in such patients can be difficult clinically but can also be complex and challenging from an ethical perspective. This chapter reviews some of the ethical problems, including organ donation and withholding/withdrawing, that can occur in the acutely ill adult cardiac patient, starting with a brief look at the ethical principles that should guide our decision making: beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and distributive justice. The role of advance directives and considerations related to family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation will also be discussed. With the increasing incidence and prevalence of coronary artery disease worldwide, the number of patients with cardiac arrest and requiring acute cardiac care is going to increase, and doctors will increasingly be faced with difficult ethical decisions associated with these patients. Open discussion and debate about these issues and good communication among patients, family members, and members of the health care team are essential to ensure that all patients receive the best possible end-of-life care.


Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Eftihia Polyzogopoulou ◽  
Antonios Boultadakis ◽  
Ignatios Ikonomidis ◽  
John Parissis

In the acute cardiac care setting, undifferentiated clinical presentations such as dyspnea, chest pain, shock, and cardiac arrest are common diagnostic challenges for the clinician. Lung ultrasonography is a well-established diagnostic tool which can be integrated in simplified decision making algorithms during the initial approach of the patient, in order to differentiate accurately cardiac from non-cardiac causes and improve the management of time-sensitive cardiovascular emergencies.


Author(s):  
Jean-Louis Vincent

The respiratory system is key to the management of patients with respiratory, as well as haemodynamic, compromise and should be monitored. The ventilator is more than just a machine that delivers gas; it is a true respiratory system monitoring device, allowing the measurement of airway pressures and intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure and the plotting of pressure/volume curves. For effective and reliable monitoring, it is necessary to keep in mind the physiology, such as the alveolar gas equation, heart-lung interactions, the equation of movement, etc. Monitoring the respiratory system enables adaptation of not only respiratory management, but also haemodynamic management.


Author(s):  
Jean-Louis Vincent

The respiratory system is key to the management of patients with respiratory, as well as haemodynamic, compromise and should be monitored. The ventilator is more than just a machine that delivers gas; it is a true respiratory system monitoring device, allowing the measurement of airway pressures and intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure and the plotting of pressure/volume curves. For effective and reliable monitoring, it is necessary to keep in mind the physiology, such as the alveolar gas equation, heart-lung interactions, the equation of movement, etc. Monitoring the respiratory system enables adaptation of not only respiratory management, but also haemodynamic management.


Author(s):  
Arie Pieter Kappetein ◽  
Christiaan Antonides ◽  
Stephan Windecker

The complexity of acute cardiac care today makes it necessary that patients are looked after by more than one health care professional. Complex tasks require complex systems. Teamwork is essential for minimizing adverse events caused by miscommunication and misunderstanding about roles and responsibilities, and it can have an immediate and positive impact on the patient. The increasing complexity and specialization of care of the cardiac patient in the acute setting, combined with an ever increasing number of therapeutic options, make it necessary to coordinate teams of doctors for each specialty area. Multidisciplinary decision making optimizes care and is mandatory in light of evolving options and improvement of quality of care and will lead to more efficiency.


Author(s):  
Arie Pieter Kappetein ◽  
Stephan Windecker

The complexity of acute cardiac care today makes it necessary that patients are looked after by more than one health care professional. Complex tasks require complex systems. Teamwork is essential for minimizing adverse events caused by miscommunication and misunderstanding about roles and responsibilities, and it can have an immediate and positive impact on the patient. The increasing complexity and specialization of care of the cardiac patient in the acute setting make it necessary to coordinate teams of doctors for each specialty area. Multidisciplinary decision making optimizes care and is mandatory in light of evolving options and improvement of quality of care and will lead to more efficiency.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodora Katsila ◽  
George P. Patrinos ◽  
Dimitrios Kardamakis

Ageing, which is associated with a progressive decline and functional deterioration in multiple organ systems, is highly heterogeneous, both inter- and intraindividually. For this, tailored-made theranostics and optimum patient stratification become fundamental, when decision-making in elderly patients is considered. In particular, when cancer incidence and cancer-related mortality and morbidity are taken into account, elderly patient care is a public health concern. In this review, we focus on oncogeriatrics and highlight current opportunities and challenges with an emphasis on the unmet need of clinically relevant biomarkers in elderly cancer patients. We performed a literature search on PubMed and Scopus databases for articles published in English between 2000 and 2017 coupled to text mining and analysis. Considering the top insights, we derived from our literature analysis that information knowledge needs to turn into knowledge growth in oncogeriatrics towards clinically relevant biomarkers, cost-effective practices, updated educational schemes for health professionals (in particular, geriatricians and oncologists), and awareness of ethical issues. We conclude with an interdisciplinary call to omics, geriatricians, oncologists, informatics, and policy-makers communities that Big Data should be translated into decision-making in the clinic.


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