Cuidados paliativos em unidade de terapia intensiva: revisão de literatura

Abstract

Introduction: Palliative care is a policy indicated for all patients with life-threatening illness, regardless of diagnosis, prognosis or age. In this context, there is an increasing proportion of elderly patients requiring ICU during the last month of life. Objective: To address the importance of palliative care in the Intensive Care Unit. Methods: The search was made from the databases Virtual Health Library (VHL), Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Social and Health Sciences (LILACS) and National Library of Medicine (PUB- MED). The following Health Sciences Descriptors (DECS) were used: "Palliative Care", "Palliative Medicine", "Geriatrics", "Intensive Care Units". The associations Palliative Care AND Palliative Medicine AND Geriatrics AND Intensive Care Units were used. Final considerations: The studies under analysis show that even with all the technological resources and current clinical research in the scientific market, even so, theoretical and practical knowledge about Palliative Care among medical professionals is restricted and deficient. Some hypotheses would be the lack of a sufficient number of university courses on the theme, and the difficulty of these professionals in assuming clinical attitudes that focus more on the quality of life of these patients than on the specific clinical conducts of each pathology. In this context, the elderly are still the age group that is most affected by improper techniques of palliative care in Brazil, and the stay in the ICU is one of the factors that further aggravate the decrease in their quality of life.