Selection for high technology treatments in older people should depend on balancing probable benefits and burdens, as well as patient preferences.
May inform individualized high-tech treatment decisions in older adults; leaves open prospective validation of benefit-burden thresholds.
Therapies to save or sustain the lives of elderly patients are sometimes used when they can bring little benefit, and sometimes denied because of age to patients who could benefit. Selection for treatment should depend on balancing probable benefits and burdens for the patient and on the patient's preferences. Burdens include those of the treatment itself, the risk of complications and of extending life of poor quality. Factors to consider when deciding are illustrated by reference to intensive care, surgery, dialysis, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and tube feeding.
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Bryan Jennett (1995) studied this question.
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