Advance Directives and End-of-life Decision Making in Intensive Care Medicine in Germany

NCT01294189 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: EOLD
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 224
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Description of the decision making process as well as the practices of end of life care in an ICU of a German university hospital during the period when changes of German legislation occurred.

Conditions

Death

Keywords

end-of-life decisions, critical care, advance directive

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• decision makers of end-of-life decisions

  The primary objective of this study performed according to an observational post-ad-hoc design is to identify and analyse the decision makers of end-of-life decisions on an intensive care unit in Germany. Approximately 200 patients will be enrolled in the study. They are followed up until their death on the ICU. Usually in clinical routine end-of-life decisions are documented for decision makers in the patients´ records. The incidences of the different decision makers including members of different clinical specialities and also members with different levels of ICU experience are compared.

  08/2008 - 09/2010

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• influence of the new German advance directives law on end-of-life decisions

  08/2008 - 09/2010

• the process of end-of-life decisions on a German intensive care unit

  08/2008 - 09/2010

Study Arms (1)

ICU-patients that died on the ICU

ICU-patients (post-operative and non operative patients) will be enrolled in the study. All patients are followed until their death on the ICU.

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Probability Sample

Study Population

All intensive care department patients (MAN101i and MAN103i Charité Berlin) will be enrolled in the study

You may qualify if:

• All patients admitted to the ICU
• All patients discharged death from the ICU

You may not qualify if:

• All patients discharged alive from the ICU

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Charite University, Berlin, Germany: lead

Study Sites (1)

Department of Anesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine Campus Charité Mitte

Berlin, State of Berlin, 10117, Germany

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Graw JA, Spies CD, Wernecke KD, Braun JP. Managing end-of-life decision making in intensive care medicine--a perspective from Charite Hospital, Germany. PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e46446. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046446. Epub 2012 Oct 1.

  PMID: 23049701 DERIVED

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Death

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Jan-Peter Braun, MD

  Charite University, Berlin, Germany

  STUDY DIRECTOR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: CASE ONLY
• Time Perspective: RETROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: OTHER

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 10, 2011
• First Posted: February 11, 2011
• Study Start: August 1, 2008
• Primary Completion: September 1, 2010
• Study Completion: February 1, 2011
• Last Updated: February 11, 2011

Record last verified: 2011-01

Locations

DE (1)