| 摘要 |
Background: This study aimed to profile the clinical pictures and identify the risk factors of mortality among terminally ill patients who visited the emergency department (ED) and had signed do‑not‑resuscitate (DNR) consents.
Methods: This prospective study employed purposeful sampling of 200 adult, nontrauma, terminally ill patients who visited the ED and signed a DNR consent between July 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012. Physiological variables were compared between fatal and survival patients using Student’s t‑tests after
assessing the normality of the data distribution.
Results: The Cox proportional regression analysis revealed that patients taking antiarrhythmic drugs and vasopressor had a 47.6‑fold and 2.8‑fold higher mortality, respectively, compared to nonusers and those who had a respiratory rate ≥28 breaths/min showed a 2.8‑fold increase in their risk of death compared to those with a respiratory rate <28 breaths/min.
Conclusions: Among terminally ill patients who had signed a DNR consent at the ED, significantly higher hazard ratios of mortality were observed in patients who were on antiarrhythmic drugs or vasopressor, had respiratory rates ≥28 breaths/min, had been intubated, and had serum potassium levels ≥ 4.5 mEq/L. |
