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Background: Many factors, such as religion, geography, and customs, influence end-of-life practices. This variability exists even between different physicians. Objective: To observe and describe the end-of-life actions of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and document the variables that might influence decision-making at the end of life. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study performed in the ICU patients of a private hospital from March 2017 to March 2022. We used the Philips Tasy Electronic Medical Record database of clinical records; 298 patients were included in the study during these five years (2017-2022). The data analysis was done with the statistical package SPSS version 23 for Windows. Results: A total of 297 patients were included in this study, of which more than half were men. About 60% of our sample had private health insurance, whereas the remaining paid out of pocket. Most patients had withholding treatment, followed by failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, withdrawal treatment, and brain death, and none of the patients had acceleration of the dying process. The main cause of admission to the ICU in our center was respiratory complications. Most of our samples were Catholics. Conclusions: Decision-making at the end of life is a complex process. Active participation of the patient, when possible, the patient's family, doctors, and nurses, can give different perspectives and a more compassionate and individualized approach to end-of-life care.
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BACKGROUND: The quality of life of Mexican patients with breast cancer has been studied, but female sexual function has only been explored superficially. The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire has been validated as a tool to measure sexual function among women with cancer. However, no study in Mexico has been published. PURPOSE: To evaluate and compare female sexuality of breast cancer survivors treated with three surgical procedures. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional questionnaire survey applied in patients without active disease and free of any oncologic treatment who underwent conservative mastectomy, and mastectomy with and without reconstruction. Patients included in this study had no evidence of active disease after at least 2 years of postoperative follow-up and agreed to complete the FSFI questionnaire during a surveillance visit. RESULTS: Seventy-four patients were included: 37.8% had undergone conservative mastectomy, 29.7% radical mastectomy, and 32.4% radical mastectomy plus reconstruction. Patients in the radical mastectomy group were older than those in the other groups (p = 0.002). Female sexual dysfunction was observed in 34% of patients, but in patients who underwent radical mastectomy, it was 63% by contrast with 14 and 29% in women treated with conservative mastectomy and radical mastectomy with reconstruction (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We found a lower prevalence of female sexual dysfunction in patients treated with conservative mastectomy or reconstruction after radical mastectomy. Alternatively, radical mastectomy was offered to older patients, a condition that could contribute together with a loss of female perception to a higher prevalence of sexual dysfunction. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE III: This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266 .