Using Time-Limited Trials to Navigate Uncertainty and Hope in the ICU
Back to course
Asset Caption
"This article was first published in the Summer 2024 issue of Critical Connections.
A time-limited trial (TLT) is a collaborative plan among clinicians and a patient and/or their surrogate decision-maker to use life-sustaining therapy for a defined duration. During a TLT, the patient’s response to therapy informs the decision as to whether to continue care directed toward recovery, transition to care focused exclusively on comfort, or extend the trial’s duration. In this article, the authors discuss the utility of TLTs when uncertainty exists about the patient’s prognosis or ambiguity around goals of care complicates medical decision-making.
Critical Connections, the critical care industry’s only newsmagazine, provides information on cutting-edge topics in critical care useful to the entire multiprofessional team."