Palliative sedation and mortality in emergency departments: descriptive study of cases in the MORCAT registry

Objective. To describe the clinical management of palliative sedation and the characteristics of sedated patients in 11 Catalan hospital emergency departments. Methods. Prospective descriptive study of a cohort of patients given palliative sedation between April and July 2018. We registered patient demographic and disease data, the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), patient's point of origin before emergency department arrival, times related to emergency care, and medications used. Results. We included 323 patients (48.9% men) with a mean (SD) age of 84 (12) years. The CCIs were significantly higher in patients attended in level-I hospitals. Palliative sedation was the first option in 27% and was initiated within 18 (28) hours of arrival on average, an interval that was significantly shorter in level-II hospitals. Most patients (74.2%) died in the emergency department. Conclusions. Patients treated with palliative sedation in hospital emergency departments are older and have serious concomitant conditions. Most patients are first treated with intention to cure. Time until the start of palliative sedation differs significantly according to hospital level.