Should we deny ICU admission to the elderly? Ethical considerations in times of COVID-19

Excerpt

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic leads to severe shortages of intensive care unit (ICU) facilities in many countries. Although most people appear to be asymptomatic, some reports suggest that 5 to 25% of infected people require hospitalization and 2–4% require mechanical ventilation [1]. This strains many ICUs beyond their maximum capacity. National critical care societies have adopted protocols to increase their beds up to 200% or more. However, although a lot of effort can be done to increase the ICU capacity, demand may still outpace the supply. As a consequence, a scenario can arise in which not every patient who needs ICU treatment can be admitted, and difficult decisions about allocation of ICU beds need to be made [2‐4]. In this article, we discuss the use of age as a criterion for ICU treatment in times of scarce ICU capacity by contrasting it with deciding under normal conditions. …