End-of-life (Eol) comfort care and withdrawal of life support (wls) of severely burned patients: A review of the literature

Abstract

Ensuring burn patients get appropriate care without pursuing futile treatment has always con-stituted a challenging balance for burn surgeons. Patients with no prospect of cure who eventually die should potentially experience more comfortable and peaceful end-of-life (EoL) care. Recognizing that death for some patients is inevitable and can only be postponed but not avoided would open the way to a more humane comfort care for such patients. Though comfort EoL services are still not universal in burns intensive care units (ICU) and disparities still exist in access, and use of palliative care appears underutilized, its integration in the burns ICU has increased over the past decade with undeniable benefits. Palliative care consultations should be considered in select burn patients for whom survival is highly unlikely. © 2020, Mediterranean Club for Burns and Fire Disasters. All rights reserved.