Overtreatment in intensive care medicine

Abstract

Overtreatment, which is therapy that is neither indicated nor desired by the patient (“non-beneficial”), presents an inherent and huge problem of modern medicine and intensive care medicine in particular. Overtreatment concerns all aspects of intensive care medicine, may start already before admission at the emergency scene, the inappropriate admission to the intensive care unit, overuse in diagnostics and especially in blood sampling, in invasive procedures and in organ support therapies. It manifests itself as “too much” in sedation, relaxation, volume therapy, hemodynamic support, blood products, antibiotics and other drugs and nutrition. Most importantly, overtreatment concerns the care of the patients at the end of life when a causal therapy is no longer available. Overtreatment also has important ethical implications and violates the four fundamental principles of medical ethics. It disregards the autonomy, dignity and integrity of the patient, is by definition nonbeneficial and increases pain, suffering, prolongs dying, increases sorrow of relatives, imposes frustration for the caregivers, disregards distributive justice and harms society in general by wasting principally limited resources. Overtreatment has also become an important legal issue and because of imposing inappropriate suffering may lead to prosecution. Overtreatment is poor medicine, is no trivial offence, all must continuously work together to reduce or avoid overtreatment.