Referral criteria to palliative care for patients with respiratory disease: a systematic review

Aims Advanced nonmalignant respiratory diseases are associated with significant patient morbidity, yet access to palliative care occurs late, if at all. Our aim was to examine referral criteria for palliative care among patients with advanced nonmalignant respiratory disease, with a view to developing a standardised set of referral criteria.

Methods We performed a systematic review of all studies reporting on referral criteria to palliative care in advanced nonmalignant respiratory disease, with a focus on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and interstitial lung disease. The systematic review was conducted and reported according to the PRISMA guidelines, and was undertaken using electronic databases (Ovid, MEDLINE, Ovid Embase and PubMed).

Results Searches yielded 2052 unique titles, which were screened for eligibility and resulted in 62 studies addressing referral criteria to palliative care in advanced nonmalignant respiratory disease. Of 18 categories put forward for referral to palliative care, the most commonly discussed factors were hospital use (69% of papers), indicators of poor respiratory status (47%), physical and emotional symptoms (37%), functional decline (29%), need for advanced respiratory therapies (27%), and disease progression (26%).

Conclusion Clinicians consider referral to specialist palliative care for a wide range of disease- and needs-based criteria. Our findings highlight the need to standardise palliative care access by developing consensus referral criteria for patients with advanced nonmalignant respiratory illnesses.