Palliative Medicine in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit and Trauma

Palliative Medicine is a new discipline that focuses on all aspects of a person in relation to medicine: physical, spiritual, and emotional. The purpose of palliative medicine is to prevent and relieve suffering and to help patients and their families set informed goals of care and treatment. Palliative medicine can be provided along with life-prolonging treatment or as the main focus of treatment. The intensive care unit (ICU) plays a prominent role in medical care in the United States today. National data suggest 30% to 40% of all patients admitted to the ICU will die while in the ICU or before hospital discharge, and 22% of all deaths in the United States now occur in or after admission to an ICU. Palliative medicine has an increasing role and presence in the ICU. The purpose of this article is to discuss the growing and essential role of palliative medicine to comprehensive patient-centered care in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) and trauma.