Choisir de ne pas dialyser les patients très âgés

Abstract

“Conservative management” is as an alternative care pathway offered to patients who elect not to start dialysis often because of a heavy burden of comorbid illness and advanced ages. Our research, characterized by a transdisciplinary medical and social investigation and based on a case by case analysis, intends to understand the reasons and the context in which this choice has to be made. On the first hand, the results show that all the studied cases can be explained by two variables, the latter can be combined: when the patient is suffering from important clinical pathologies; when the patient lives with this renal failure as a trouble linked to the age. On the second hand, two important questions are raised: the first one is about the medical practices and stems from the influence of criteria always present in the decisions to take (the paramedical exams and the clinical information from the interview, the patient's examination and the discussion with his/her close family member). The second one is about the patient's autonomy and can be analyzed regarding to his/her capacity to express his/her choices and share it with his close family. But also, to live in according to his age, that is to say the relation he/she has with his/her edged body and to the limits of his/her existence. The key notion of shared decision-making renewed is to refer in the consultation and the choices to take to the question of the advantages/drawbacks for the patient's life and not only to the question of the connection between the results and the medical risks, in order to exchange view with the patient on his/her future life and not only on the condition of his failed organ.