Abstract
Background
Palliative care in China is in its early stages of development, with insufficient research on palliative sedation, especially concerning its potential effects on survival. This study aimed to conduct a cohort study among terminally ill patients with cancer in a palliative care ward to investigate the association between palliative sedation and survival.
Methods
This retrospective cohort study included patients admitted to the palliative care ward in Beijing Tsing Changgung Hospital from January 2019 to June 2023. Based on the administration of palliative sedation, patients were categorized into sedation and non-sedation groups. We compared survival between the two groups. Statistical analyses were performed using R and Free Statistics software.
Results
In this study, we included 212 terminal patients, with 121 undergoing palliative sedation and 91 not receiving sedation. The median survival for the sedation group was 12 days (95% CI: 9.519–14.481), compared to 7 days (95% CI: 4.811–9.189) for the non-sedation group, with a log-rank p-value of < 0.001, indicating significantly longer survival for the sedation group. After adjusting all key confounding factors, the mortality risk was 40% lower in the sedation group compared to the non-sedation group (HR = 0.6, 95% CI: 0.43–0.82, P = 0.002).
Conclusion
Our findings indicate that palliative sedation not only does not shorten but may potentially prolong the survival of terminally ill patients with cancer. This provides significant theoretical and practical support for palliative care physicians, allowing for the judicious use of palliative sedation when necessary.