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PubMed · 1760673

Moral principles in withdrawing basic life support from patients in the persistent vegetative state.

D A Conn·N Pace·J R Dougall
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Abstract

Patients in a state of persistent vegetation or 'cognitive death' are an emotional drain on their family, and a financial drain on a society with limited resources. In this article, society's responsibility towards these patients and the moral and ethical issues involved in the withdrawal of fluid and nutrition are discussed.

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ComaEthics, MedicalEuthanasia, PassiveHumansLife Support CareMoralsResource AllocationWithholding TreatmentDeath and EuthanasiaJournal Article

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D A Conn, N Pace, J R Dougall. 1991. Moral principles in withdrawing basic life support from patients in the persistent vegetative state.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1760673/

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PubMed2007

Predicting coma and other low responsive patients outcome using event-related brain potentials: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: A meta-analysis was performed to estimate the predictive power (odd ratio, OR) for awakening of auditory event-related potential (ERP) components in low responsive patients with stroke or hemorrhage, trauma, anoxic, post-operative, and metabolic encephalopathy etiologies. METHODS: We reviewed MEDLINE and analyzed citations for retrieved articles. Logistic regressions were applied on patient samples (Glasgow Coma Scale <12) across and for separate etiologies. RESULTS: For stroke and hemorrhage the ORs with 95% confidence intervals were: 2.05 [1.12-3.75] (N100), 4.47 [1.92-10.44] (MMN), 10.29 [2.00-52.79] (P300), for trauma: 1.63 [0.70-3.80] (N100), 4.72 [1.35-16.44] (MMN), 12.89 [4.82-34.43] (P300), anoxic: 8.03 [2.83-22.75] (N100), 15.50 [4.27-56.26] (MMN), 5.93 [2.38-14.77] (P300), post-operative: 10.66 [1.98-57.50] (N100), metabolic encephalopathy: 2.12 [0.34-13.13] (N100), 3.60 [0.28-46.36] (MMN), 7.71 [0.75-79.77] (P300), and all etiologies: 2.85 [1.91-4.27] (N100), 6.53 [3.55-12.01] (MMN), and 8.79 [4.88-15.83] (P300). Based on six N100 studies (N=548 patients), five MMN studies (N=470), and six P300 studies (N=313), the N100, MMN, or P300, when present, significantly predicted awakening, P300 and MMN being significantly better predictors than N100. CONCLUSIONS: The MMN and P300 appear to be reliable predictors of awakening. SIGNIFICANCE: The prognostic assessment of low responsive patients with auditory ERP should take into account both MMN and P300.

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