Guidelines for Decisions to Withhold or Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments (LST) in Adult ICU.

GuidelineAnaesthesia, critical care & pain medicine· Oct 2026

Guidelines for Decisions to Withhold or Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments (LST) in Adult ICU.

Mikhael Giabicani, Gérard Audibert, Enora Atchade … Elise Langouet

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Physical Medicine & RehabilitationGuidelineClinical practice

Experts developed 9 recommendations for life-sustaining treatment decisions in adult ICU.

Guidelines for Decisions to Withhold or Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments (LST) in Adult ICU.

Mikhael Giabicani … Elise Langouet

Anaesthesia, critical care & pain medicine · Oct 2026

Purpose

The French Society of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine (Société française d'anesthésie et de réanimation, SFAR) and the French Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Société Française de Médecine Physique et de Réadaptation (SOFMER)) aimed at providing guidelines for decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments (life-sustaining treatments) in adult ICU.

Methods

A consensus committee of 20 experts from the SFAR and the SOFMER was convened.

n = 20 experts

Results

guidelines for life-sustaining treatment decisions in adult ICU

1

GRADE 1

2

GRADE 2

6

expert's opinion

More results

Among the formalized recommendations, 1 was found to have a high level of evidence (GRADE 1), and 2 had low levels of evidence (GRADE 2).

For 6 recommendations, the GRADE® methodology could not be fully applied, resulting in an expert's opinion.

2 questions could not be answered due to a lack of literature.

More results

After 1 round of rating, strong agreement was reached for all the recommendations.

“

Conclusion

There was strong agreement among experts to provide recommendations to improve practices for decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments in the adult ICU.

Guidelines for Decisions to Withhold or Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments (LST) in Adult ICU.

Guidelines for Decisions to Withhold or Withdraw Life-Sustaining Treatments (LST) in Adult ICU.

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