Advance Directives and Resuscitation Issues in the Care of Patients in Orthopaedic Surgery

Editorial: Improving End of Life Care in Orthopaedics

“…Although many patients near the end of life may express preferences to forego invasive treatments, others may want to pursue care interventions that may increase the duration or quality of their remaining life [7]. Nonetheless, the presence of a do-not-resuscitate order may carry practical implications for the care patients receive that extend beyond the provision of CPR alone, as physicians may be less likely to recommend other lifeprolonging treatments, such as blood cultures, central line placement, or blood transfusion, to patients with do-notresuscitate orders [2,11]. As such, the experiences of patients near the end of life potentially may be improved through an acknowledgement that the simultaneous delivery of life-prolonging treatments and palliative care for a given patient may be appropriate if aligned with an individual's overarching priorities for care [7].…”