Evaluation of the Palliative Approach in the NICU

In neonatal resuscitation, the majority of deaths currently occur after a Life Limitation or Discontinuance (LAT) procedure. In the 1990s, the approach was different, as Marina CUTTINI put it in a European study that highlighted some French peculiarities: doctors and nurses found it legitimate to have life stops in certain circumstances, and wanted to keep parents away from these decisions deemed guilt. Civil society has changed the thinking in recent years by the so-called Kouchner then LEONETTI laws. The palliative approach, which is defined as the search for a fair and reasonable balance, constantly reevaluated, between curative care and care of comfort and support, has become a constant concern in neonatal resuscitation services. However, we did not find a recent study that specifies in France the modalities of deaths in neonatology, especially their proportion after LAT. Also, shortly before the adoption of the CLAYES-LEONETTI law, the authors wished to make an inventory of the practices of all the neonatal intensive care units of Ile de France, one of the main centers of French fertility.

The objectives of the study were to describe the organization of collegial meetings (CR), the decision-making process and implementation of LATs, with particular attention to stopping artificial nutrition and hydration, and sedation / analgesia. The place of the parents in these different processes (gathering their opinion, information on how to withdraw life-saving treatment, leading in the event of disagreement) was also studied. Finally, some questions about euthanasia were asked, in order to measure the evolution of ideas and practices more than 15 years after EURONIC and 10 years after the LEONETTI law.