Intensive care unit strain should not rush physicians into making inappropriate decisions, but merely reduce the time to the right decisions being made

Deaths in the intensive care unit (ICU) are preceded in 53% to 90% of cases by a decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining therapies (1-3). The most common reasons justifying this decision include the patient’s age, previous autonomy, comorbidities, expected future quality of life, diagnosis at admission, non-response to maximal therapy and multi-organ failure (1,3,4).