End of Life care in ICUs in Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt
Sonya Mohamed Sayed Ahmed Azab, Associate Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Ain Shams University- Faculty of Medicine
Wednesday, 03 October 2018, 11am to 12.30pm
Seminar Room 0, Big Data Institute, Old Road Campus, Oxford, OX3 7LF
End-of-life care refers to care for people in decline who are deemed to be terminal or dying in the foreseeable (near) future. Several studies revealed substantial differences in the practice of life support treatment that were attributed to personal, institutional, cultural, legal and economic factors.
This study aimed to investigate physicians’ attitude toward end of life care and the reported practice in adult ICUs in Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo, Egypt.
This survey study included 100 physicians working in adult ICUs in Ain Shams University Hospitals, Cairo. Although most of the participants reported daily care of terminally ill patients, 69% of them reported absence of definite policy for limitation of life-sustaining therapy in their ICUs. Participants’ attitudes and reported practice were very different from those reported in western countries.
This study revealed the need for establishing clear guidelines that comply with our Islamic culture.