Euthanasia of Patients with the Chronic Renal Failure

Abstract

This study deals with frequency and form of euthanasia in dialysis patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) within the period from 2000 to 2006. Of total number of 2700 patients on dialysis we examined n=753 of them. Examinees with the Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (BEN) (n=348) were in the first group, and the Control group was formed of patients with other diseases (n=405). In this study the following methods were used: adapted Questionnaire from the Renal Registry of B&H, Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Hamilton’s Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Mini-Mental Scale of Estimation (MMSE). Age of the BEN group of patients ranged: 64.77 ± 8.86 and the control one 53.85 ± 3.60. Multivariate analysis for the BEN group with passive euthanasia was: 0.760 (95%, CI=0.590–0.710) (p=0.001) and for the active one was 0.450 (95%, CI=0.125–0.510 (p=0.001). Euthanasia is associated with the rural life and renal heredity, and psychological BAI scale-total, HDRS–total and MMSE–total. For the BEN group passive euthanasia is 3.75% as well as active 0.86%. The findings stressed that euthanasia of dialysis patients requires better nephrological–psychiatric control and social care in B&H as well as complete program for the CRF samples protection too

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