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ObjectiveTo investigate staff attitudes toward assisted suicide in the hospital setting in Switzerland.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingTwo University Hospitals in French speaking regions of Switzerland.Participants13'834 health care professionals, including all personnel caring for patients, were invited to participate.Main outcome measures and other variablesAttitudes towards the participation of hospital health care professionals in assisted suicide were investigated with an online questionnaire.ResultsAmong all invited professionals, 5'127 responded by filling in the survey at least partially (response rate 37.0%), and 3'683 completed the entire survey (26.6%). 73.0% of participants approved that this practice should be authorized in their hospital and saw more positive than negative effects. 57.6% would consider assisted suicide for themselves. Non-medical professionals were 1.28 to 5.25 times more likely to approve assisted suicide than physicians (pConclusionsThis multiprofessional survey sheds light on hospital staff perceptions of assisted suicide happening within hospital walls, which may inform the development of rules considering their wishes but also their reluctances. Further research using a mixed-methods approach could help reach an in-depth understanding of staff's attitudes and considerations towards assisted suicide practices.

Advances in intensive care medicine have created a new disease called the chronic critical illness. While a significant proportion of severely ill patients who twenty years ago would have died survive the acute phase, they remain heavily dependent on intensive care for a prolonged period of time. These patients, who can be called “Patient Long Séjour” in French (PLS) or Prolonged Length of Stay patients in English, develop specific health issues that are still poorly recognised. They require special care, which differs from treatments that are given during the acute phase of their illness. A multidisciplinary team dedicated to ensuring their management and follow-up acquired a wide range of knowledge and expertise about these PLSs. Many new monitoring tools and diverse human approaches were implemented to ensure that care was targeted to these patients’ needs. This multimodal care management aims to optimise the patients’ and their families’ quality of life during and following intensive care, whilst maintaining the motivation of the healthcare team of the unit. The purpose of this article is to present new management techniques to hospital and ambulatory caregivers, physicians and nurses, who may be taking care of such patients.

QUESTION UNDER STUDY: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with a poor prognosis. Survival and quality of life of ALS patients have improved through the implementation of multidisciplinary approaches, the use of percutaneous gastrostomy and of noninvasive (NIV) or invasive ventilation. The question of whether or not to propose invasive ventilation (by tracheostomy: TPPV) to ALS patients remains a matter of debate. METHODS: The study reviews the medical literature, the practice in three Swiss and two large French ALS expert centres and reports the results of a workgroup on invasive ventilation in ALS. RESULTS: Improved management of secretions and use of different interfaces allows NIV to be used 24-hours-a-day for prolonged periods, thus avoiding TPPV in many cases. TPPV is frequently initiated in emergency situations with lack of prior informed consent. TPPV appears associated with a lesser quality of life and a higher risk of institutionalisation than NIV. The high burden placed on caregivers who manage ALS patients is a major problem with a clear impact on their quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Current practice in Switzerland and France tends to discourage the use of TPPV in ALS. Fear of a “locked-in syndrome”, the high burden placed on caregivers, and unmasking cognitive disorders occurring in the evolution of ALS are some of the caveats when considering TPPV. Most decisions about TPPV are taken in emergency situations in the absence of advance directives. One exception is that of young motivated patients with predominantly bulbar disease who “fail” NIV.

Ageing of the world’s population raises important questions about the utilisation of the health care system. It is not clear how much should be invested in the last years of life whereas the costs are known to increase in parallel. Since intensive care units (ICU) are costly with highly specialised personnel, it seems of paramount importance that they would be used efficiently. Indeed, in the present context of predicted shortage of physicians in Switzerland, society and politics will need evidence that the care provided by ICUs is appropriate. There is no explicit limitation of care in any country according to age and nonagerians are admitted nowadays into ICUs with critical illness. This review article will address the question of elderly patients in ICU and their outcome. Outcome does not imply surviving ICU but only later during the hospital stay and after discharge. Furthermore, we emphasise the need of examining not solely the hospital survival but the quality of life of the patients when they return to their real life. The fundamental questions are actually “Do they go back to life?” “What is life for elderly people?” These questions lead to more basic questions such as “Are they able to go back home or are they institutionalised? How is their quality of life and functional status after ICU?”. We tried to address these questions through the existing literature and our experience while caring for these particular patients. Some clues on the prognostic factors related to their outcome are reported.