Is parenteral hydration beneficial in terminally ill cancer patients?

INTRODUCTION

It is common for terminally ill patients to have a reduced fluid intake, which often results in a need for more medical support. However, it is not clear if this measure has a real clinical impact.

METHODS

To answer this question we used Epistemonikos, the largest database of systematic reviews in health, which is maintained by screening multiple information sources, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane, among others. We extracted data from the systematic reviews, reanalyzed data from primary studies and generated a summary of findings table using the GRADE approach.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

We identified four systematic reviews including 51 studies overall, from which three were randomized trials. We concluded the administration of parenteral hydration might make little or no difference in terms of survival and quality of life in terminally ill cancer patients, and that it is not clear whether it has any other benefit because the certainty of the evidence is very low.