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Causes and place of death in Italian patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Causes and place of death in Italian patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
- Source :
- Acta Neurologica Scandinavica; Sep2010, Vol. 122 Issue 3, p217-223, 7p, 3 Charts, 2 Graphs
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- Spataro R, Lo Re M, Piccoli T, Piccoli F, La BellaV. Causes and place of death in Italian patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Acta Neurol Scand: 122: 217–223. © 2010 The Authors Journal compilation © 2010 Blackwell Munksgaard. Objectives – To determine the causes and place of death in a cohort of Italian patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). A better understanding of the likely causes of death in ALS might improve the palliative care at the end-of-life, whereas knowing the place of death will help to verify the need for highly specialized care services, e.g. hospice and nursing home. Patients and methods – Between 2000 and 2008, 182 ALS patients (onset: spinal, 127; bulbar, 55; M/F: 1.6) were followed in a single ALS Tertiary Centre in Palermo, Sicily, Italy until death. Medical data for each individual patient were recorded in a large database throughout the disease course. Information concerning causes and place of death were obtained by consultation with relatives or the family physician. Results – Respiratory failure (terminal respiratory insufficiency, pneumonia) was the most frequent cause of death (81.3%), which included six cases (3.3%) who requested a terminal sedation. Sudden death and death during sleep accounted for by 6.0% and 6.6% of all deaths, respectively. Heart-related causes of death were relatively infrequent in our cohort, accounting for by 7.1% of all deaths (i.e. sudden death: 6.0% and myocardial infarct: 1.1%). Patients (85.2%) died at home. Conclusions – The leading cause of death in ALS remains the respiratory failure, followed by the sudden death and death during sleep. Most patients in our cohort died at home, a choice that might be only partially driven by cultural factors. These findings might have a great impact on the development of the advanced and end-of-life palliative care and in the planning of specialized care services, as hospice and nursing home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00016314
- Volume :
- 122
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Acta Neurologica Scandinavica
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 52670053
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0404.2009.01290.x