Cuidados Paliativos e Medicina

Abstrato

Initiating Tube Feeding in the Demented Elderly: Motivation for Change

Marc Freiman, Joshua Minsky and Michael A Grodin

While the medical literature does not support the placement of feeding tubes in the demented elderly it remains a very common practice. Through an analysis of medical evidence as well as the decision-making processes surrounding the placement of feeding tubes we hope to further clarify the complexity involved in the decision to perform this procedure and why, despite the evidence, it still happens on a regular basis. Furthermore, through an analysis of theories of change we will analyze how frame-shifts in medicine occur and put forward suggestions so that feeding tube placement is not performed unnecessarily in patients with severe dementia.