The last week of life of nursing home residents with advanced dementia: a retrospective study

BMC Palliative Care

Table 3 Invasive treatments/interventions in the 7 days before death

	n (n = 482)	%	95% CI^b (%)
Oral/tracheal suctioning	101	21.0	17.3;24.6
Blood collection	73	15.1	11.9;18.3
Peripheral vein cannulation (one or more attempts)	53	11.0	8.2;13.8
Insertion/repositioning of urinary catheter	30	6.2	4.1;8.4
Insertion/repositioning of a nasogastric tube (2 PEGs^b)	11	2.3	0.9;3.6
Insertion of a central venous catheter	3	0.6	0.0;1.3
Other invasive treatments^a	6	1.2	0.2;2.2

^aOther treatments (residents could be exposed to more than one treatment): Enema [2]; Glycaemia measurement [2]; Hemogasanalysis [1]; Flu vaccine [1]
^bCI Confidence interval, PEG Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy

ISSN: 1472-684X