RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: In France, when the patient is unable to express his wishes, the decision to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment (WWLST) is made following a collegial procedure described by a law. The aim of our study was to assess how closely this WWLST decision-making procedure in end of life patients was maintained during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This retrospective observational multicentre study compared the rate of non-compliance with WWLST decision-making procedures during the pandemic period from March to June 2020 with control period in 2019, in Clermont-Ferrand and Lyon Hospitals. Secondary objectives were to determine the factors associated with non-compliance. RESULTS: In 430 deceased patients included (176 in 2019 and 254 in 2020), the rate of non-compliance was 61.4% in 2019 and 59.1% in 2020 (p=0.63). In multivariable analysis, non-compliance was associated with immunosuppression status (OR 1.69, 95% CI (1.12 to 2.54), p=0.01) but was lower in intensive care unit (OR 0.54, 95% CI (0.36 to 0.82), p=0.003) and when the patient had visits from relatives (OR 0.41, 95% CI (0.22 to 0.75), p=0.004). CONCLUSION: In France, more than half of WWLST decisions do not comply with the law. The COVID-19 pandemic did not increase this non-compliance rate. Further studies are needed for a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying non-compliance with WWLST decision-making procedure. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04452487.
RESUMEN
Septic arthritis (SA) and gout are the main suspected etiologies of acute monoarthritis. Differentiating them is essential because SA is an emergency. The performance of a gout diagnostic score developed by Janssens et al. was investigated in a cohort of patients with acute arthritis suspected of being septic. This was an ancillary study of a single-center cohort of patients with suspected SA. Patients were classified into three groups according to the final diagnosis (gout, SA or other diagnosis). We assessed the performance of the score (sensitivity [Se], specificity [Sp], positive and negative predictive value [PPV, NPV], area under the receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve) for the diagnosis of gouty arthritis. In total, 138 patients were included: 28 (20.3%) had gout, 42 (30.4%) SA, and 68 (49.3%) another diagnosis. The median diagnostic score was 7.0 [4.5; 8.8] for patients with gout, 3.5 [2.5; 6.0] for those with SA and 3.0 [2.0-5.0] for those with another diagnosis. With a score threshold of ≥ 8, the Se for a diagnosis of gout was 28.6%, Sp 96.4%, PPV 66.7%, and NPV 84.1%. With a threshold of ≤ 4, the Se was 82.1%, Sp 64.5%, PPV 37.1%, and NPV 93.4%. The area under the ROC for the diagnostic score was 0.79. The performance of the clinico-biological score of Janssens et al. for a diagnosis of gout applied to a cohort of patients with acute arthritis and suspected of being septic was poor. Joint aspiration remains necessary to differentiate SA from another etiology.