Applying palliative sedation practices in a geriatric context following the French law of 2016
Type de matériel :
95
The February 2016 French law on patient rights and the end of life has created a duty for healthcare professionals: to apply any sedation practices necessary to relieve refractory suffering at the end of life. In some very specific cases, this law has even created a right to deep and continuous sedation (maintained until death). The French Society for Palliative Care (SFAP) has approved an assessment scale: SEDAPALL. This valuable tool helps in the discussion and application of various sedation practices at the end of life. It uses three independent axes for considering the desired induced sleep: expected duration, depth, and nature of consent. Each axis has several possible values: duration (I- precise anticipated duration; II- imprecise but potentially reversible duration; III- irreversible duration; IV- no awakening until death); intensity (I- sufficient enough to relieve refractory symptoms; II- intense straightaway); and consent (I- no consent; II- anticipated consent; III- consent at the time of sedation; IV- explicit request for pharmacological sleep). Currently, there are no specific published guidelines for geriatric sedation. After presenting SEDAPALL, we discuss certain issues raised by these practices, particularly those that are ethical. Using clinical vignettes in geriatric situations, we show that the SEDAPALL typology allows us to clearly state what we plan to do, and to clearly do what has been stated. It also opens up research avenues to study whether there are differences between the general population and geriatric patients when it comes to palliative sedation practices at the end of life. But the French law of 2016 grants the right for patients, including elderly ones, to die without uncomfortable symptoms.
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