“Does anesthesia help hospice patients?”

Not usually. Most sedative meds are ordered by the hospice doc

ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF HOSPICE CARE IS SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT. Such symptoms often include pain, shortness of breath, bowel and bladder issues, and disturbance in sleep/wakefulness cycles. Palliative care and hospice physicians are expert in symptom management to maintain patient comfort.  Management of symptoms often combines mind-body techniques, such as guided imagery, with medication. Medical management of symptoms is not considered anesthesia per se, but many of the same medications that anesthesiologists use are often also used for symptom management. Sometimes when symptoms are especially difficult to control particularly as the time of death nears, hospice patients may request what is called "terminal" or "palliative sedation," which means administering sedative medications by the intravenous route to induce sleep/unconsciousness.  Palliative sedation can probably be considered moderate to deep sedation.  Although palliative sedation is not administered with the intent to speed up a patient's terminal course, it is continued until the patient expires.