Interv Akut Kardiol 2011; 10(Suppl. B): 4-5
Ethical and legal challenges in acute cardiology
- 1. interní klinika Lékařské fakulty UK Praha a Fakultní nemocnice v Hradci Králové;
Significant improvements in care result in prolonging the life of patients with heart diseases. On the other hand, however, it is not uncommon
for a cardiac intensive care physician to be faced with the need to decide not to initiate or to discontinue intensive treatment.
In addition, acute situations can be reversed in a number of heart diseases and the patient converted to a chronic stage of disease;
however, over time, all treatment options become gradually exhausted and an increasing number of individuals live to reach irreversible
end-stage disease in which treatment fails and it is necessary to prepare for its termination. All of this presents new ethical and legal
problems for decision-making.
Keywords: ethics, futile and purposeless treatment, palliative treatment
Published: June 1, 2011 Show citation
