Ventilation Strategies in Palliative Care

Abstract

Palliative care is proposed to patients with advanced and terminal illnesses in order to prevent and relieve suffering and improve their quality of life. Breathlessness is one of the main aspects of end-stage disease. To relieve dyspnea, different measures are proposed including oxygen and opioid drugs. Moreover, noninvasive ventilation is sometimes used as a palliative strategy when intubation is deemed inappropriate. We propose a review of literature concerning the place of palliative oxygen and non-invasive ventilation in different situations such as do-not-intubate orders, end-stage cardiac or respiratory failures, advanced age, end-of-life oncology patients or neurodegenerative diseases.