Jun 11, 2021
This episode features Laura Health
(Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of
Oxford, Oxford, UK).
COVID-19 has a mortality of between 1% and 2% and is the deadliest
pandemic in living memory. The elderly, and those with pre-existing
conditions tend to be most vulnerable to severe disease and
death. Common symptoms experienced at the end of life include
breathlessness and agitation/delirium. Care of those dying of
COVID-19 is an understudied aspect of the pandemic.
This paper is the first review of international studies describing
pharmacological symptom management of adult patients dying of
COVID-19. Our thorough search found only seven papers
that documented pharmacological symptom management of this
patient cohort, highlighting the lack of research in this area.
A higher proportion of patients required continuous subcutaneous
infusions for medication delivery than is typically seen at the end
of life. Modest doses of commonly used end of life medications
were required for symptom control. There was a lack of information
about how effectiveness was measured, and whether medications used
effectively alleviated symptoms.