Search results for "Palliative care."

Aberrant opioid use behaviour in advanced cancer.

2020

ObjectivesTo evaluate the presence of aberrant behaviour in a consecutive sample of patients with advanced cancer treated with opioids in a country like Italy, with its peculiar attitudes towards the use opioids. The second objective was to detect the real misuse of opioids in clinical practice.MethodsProspective observational study in two palliative care units in Italy in a period of 6 months. At admission the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale, the Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale, Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale were measured. For detecting the risk of aberrant opioid use, the Screener and Opioid Assessment for Patients With Pain (SOAAP), the Opioid …

“Song of Life”: Results of a multicenter randomized trial on the effects of biographical music therapy in palliative care

2021

Background: Awareness for the importance of psychological and spiritual needs in patients with terminal diseases has increased in recent years, but randomized trials on the effects of psychosocial interventions are still rare. Aim: To investigate the efficacy of the “Song of Life” music therapy intervention regarding the emotional and psycho-spiritual dimensions of quality of life. Design: Patients were randomly assigned to either “Song of Life” or a relaxation intervention. “Song of Life” is a novel three-session music therapy intervention working with a biographically meaningful song. Primary outcome was the improvement in psychological quality of life. Secondary outcomes included spiritu…

Impact of Palliative Care in Evaluating and Relieving Symptoms in Patients with Advanced Cancer. Results from the DEMETRA Study

2020

Background: Cancer patients experience multiple symptoms throughout the course of the disease. We aimed to provide a comprehensive analysis of the symptom burden in patients with advanced cancer at admission to specialist palliative care (PC) services and seven days later to estimate the immediate impact of PC intervention. Patient and methods: The analysis was based on an observational, prospective, multicenter study (named DEMETRA) conducted in Italy on new patients accessing network specialist PC centers during the period May 2017&ndash

Integration of oncology and palliative care

2018

The low opioid consumption in Italy depends on late palliative care

2013

Tongue metastasis of cutaneous melanoma: Report of two cases and literature review

2018

Introduction Malignant metastases to the oral cavity are rare and metastatic melanomas of the tongue are considered exceptionally uncommon, with less than 10 cases published in the English literature so far. Case reports Two female patients in the 7th decade of life presented to our dental service with nodules in the tongue. Both patients had multiple metastases at the time of oral diagnosis and primary melanoma originated on the skin. An intra-oral incisional biopsy was performed under local anesthesia and the histopathologic analysis was characterized by the proliferation of atypical epithelioid cells displaying a poorly delimited cytoplasm and hyperchromatic nucleus which contained eosin…

Palliative care in intensive care units: Why, where, what, who, when, how

2018

Palliative care is patient and family-centered care that optimizes quality of life by anticipating, preventing, and treating suffering when “curative” therapies are futile. In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), critically ill patients receive life-sustaining therapies with the goal of restoring or maintaining organ function. Palliative Care in the ICU is a widely discussed topic and it is increasingly applied in clinics. It encompasses symptoms control and end-of-life management, communication with relatives and setting goals of care ensuring dignity in death and decision-making power. However, effective application of Palliative Care in ICU presupposes specific knowledge and training which ane…

Minimally invasive procedures for the management of vertebral bone pain due to cancer: The EAPC recommendations.

2015

Image-guided percutaneous ablation methods have proved effective for treatment of benign bone tumors and for palliation of metastases involving the bone. However, the role of these techniques is controversial and has to be better defined in the setting of palliative care.A systematic review of the existing data regarding minimally invasive techniques for the pain management of vertebral bone metastases was performed by experts of the European Palliative Care Research Network.Only five papers were taken into consideration after performing rigorous screening according to inclusion and exclusion criteria (low number of patients, retrospective series, proceedings).According to the present data …

The Short Demoralization Scale (SDS): A new tool to appraise demoralization in palliative care patients.

2017

ABSTRACTObjective:The Demoralization Scale (DS) is the most widely used measure for assessing demoralization. Following the recent clamor for brief assessment tools, and taking into account that demoralization has proved to be a symptom that needs to be controlled and treated in the palliative care setting, a shorter scale is needed. The aim of the present research is to introduce and evaluate the Short Demoralization Scale (SDS).Method:We employed a cross-sectional design that included a survey of 226 Spanish palliative care patients from the Hospital General Universitario de Valencia. We employed the SDS, the DS, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS).Results:The confirmator…

IAGG/IAGG GARN International Survey of End-of-Life Care in Nursing Homes

2017

Item does not contain fulltext This article reports the findings of a survey on end-of-life (EOL) care in nursing homes of 18 long-term care experts across 15 countries. The experts were chosen as a convenience-based sample of known experts in each country. The survey was administered in 2016 and included both open-ended responses for defining hospice care, palliative care, and "end of life," and a series of questions related to the following areas-attitudes toward EOL care, current practice and EOL interventions, structure of care, and routine barriers. Overall experts strongly agreed that hospice and palliative care should be available in long-term care facilities and that both are define…