Palliative sedation in patients hospitalized in internal medicine departments

Abstract Context Palliative sedationis used to relieve end-of-life refractory symptoms. Objective To describe the use of palliative sedationin patients who die in internal medicinedepartments. Methods An observational, cross-sectional, retrospective and multicenter, clinical auditstudy was conducted in 145 hospitals in Spain and Argentina. Each hospital included the first 10 patients who died in the internal medicinedepartment, starting on December 1, 2015. Results We included 1447 patients, and palliative sedationwas administered to 701 (48.4%). Having a terminal illness (OR 2.469, 95%CI 1.971-3.093, p Conclusions Palliative sedationis employed more often for terminal patients. There are differences in the administration of palliative sedationbetween patients with and without cancer.