Assessment of Patient Comfort During Palliative Sedation: Is it always Reliable?

"When death knocks at the door of our ward, we do not easily open the door”, an intensivist once said. In the intensive care unit (ICU) and emergency department, care is strongly focused on cure and resuscitation. Notwithstanding the technological progress made in intensive and emergency medicine, a substantial number of the patients admitted to the ICU cannot be saved. In these cases, it is important to make a timely shift from curative efforts to palliative care, so that futile and burdensome interventions can be avoided. When death becomes imminent, a major concern of the family members and caregivers is to assure maximal comfort during the dying process. A central aspect of good end-of-life care is to keep the patient, as much as possible, free of pain and other kinds of distress. However, many critically ill patients often suffer from symptoms such as pain and delirium. More than 50 % of critically ill patients in the ICU experience moderate to severe pain and pain in critically ill patients often remains untreated [1].