PalliativeCare

The NHS is failing to provide access to 24-hour expert support for patients dying at home in England, according to palliative care charity Sue Ryder.  

Increased patient demand means GPs require training focusing on key specialties needed in the community, such as dermatology, palliative care and psychiatry  

Palliative care is a branch of medicine in which the UK has a long and creative record, and the shortlist for the Palliative Care Team award shows no evidence of any loss of momentum. Shortlisted entries covered the extension of palliative care to conditions other than cancer, the use of new technology and pain control to make patients’ lives better, and the introduction of personalised end of life pathways, finds Nigel Hawkes.  

A new randomized clinical trial with Dartmouth investigators Kathleen Lyons, ScD, Tor Tosteson, ScD, Zhigang Li, PhD, and collaborators has noted significant improvement in several measures...  

When a nursing home patient is dying, aggressive interventions such as inserting a feeding tube or sending the patient to the emergency room can futilely exacerbate, rather than relieve, their...  

The AMA has released its new Position Statement on Palliative Approach in Residential Aged Care Facilities.  

The UK's palliative care system needs a major overhaul, according to an LSE report released Wednesday 8 April which reveals widespread inequities and a lack of services for non-cancer patients.  

A new study published in CMAJ Open may dispel serious misunderstandings about assisted death and palliative care in Belgium, according to authors Drs.  

Consensus guidelines offer distinct recommendations for adjuvant and palliative treatments in elderly patients with colorectal cancer, as discussed by Dr David Kerr.  

Palliative Care in the Emergency Department - The Time is Now  

Palliative care in the emergency department? Absolutely! This post outlines an approach to palliative care that can be used in the ED.  

One of the best palliative care lectures I have ever heard.  

Improving palliative care in the ICU is the goal of the Center to Advance Palliative Care's IPAL Project.  

Background: Cervical cancer (cancer of the neck of the womb) is the second most common cancer among women throughout the world, accounting for about 500,000 new detected cases and 273,000 deaths every year. Women more commonly present with advanced disease in the developing world, where access to cervical screening programmes is limited. Advanced cancer of the cervix may not be curable and women often need treatment to control distressing symptoms (palliation), such as vaginal bleeding. Bleeding can be severe enough to be life threatening in women with advanced cervical cancer. Management of vaginal bleeding often poses a challenge, especially in the developing world, where access to radiotherapy is limited. Options for palliative treatment of severe vaginal bleeding include interventional radiology treatment (using x-rays to guide the insertion of 'plugs' into blood vessels supplying the cancer) or vaginal packing (where gauze is compacted into the vagina to absorb the blood and apply pressure directly to the cervix), although these are often only partly effective and may cause harm. Vaginal packs can be soaked with formalin, which is a preservative chemical. Other options for treating severe vaginal bleeding include tranexamic acid (a medicine that reduces bleeding that can be given by mouth or by injection) and radiotherapy (high-energy x-ray treatment).  

Palliative Medicine Teaching. 4,695 likes · 528 talking about this. Palliative Care can teach us a lot. Let's stop these futile tugs of war and remember...  

People with an incurable illness may receive palliative care, which involves making the person as comfortable as possible by controlling pain and other distressing symptoms. People receiving palliative care commonly experience constipation. This is as a result of the use of medicines (e.g. morphine) for pain control, as well as disease, dietary and mobility factors. There is a wide range of laxatives available. The aim of this review was to determine what we know about the effectiveness of laxatives for the management of constipation in people receiving palliative care.  

The use of volunteers in community palliative care services can extend the range of activities offered to support people who are terminally ill. The types of training and support for volunteers are likely to affect their effectiveness and influence the quality of care provided to people requiring palliative care and their families. Training and support may also be costly for palliative care organisations.    

PV Card: Palliative Care Screening in the Emergency Department  

Illness trajectories depicting how function declines to death with certain diseases, such as cancer, can help with palliative care. Creutzfeldt and colleagues propose a fourth trajectory is needed for patients with severe acute brain injury to improve decision making and standards of care  

Viscount Bridgeman has led a debate on the future of hospices and palliative care services.