Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2014
Advance care planning and physician orders in nursing home residents with dementia: a nationwide retrospective study among professional caregivers and relatives.
Advance care planning (ACP) is key to good palliative care for nursing home (NH) residents with dementia. ⋯ Communication regarding care is rarely patient driven and more often professional caregiver or family driven. The level of congruence between professional caregivers and relatives is low.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2014
Aggressiveness of end-of-life care for patients with colorectal cancer in Alberta, Canada: 2006-2009.
North American studies have documented practice variations and deficiencies in end-of-life (EOL) cancer care, such as trends toward treating dying patients aggressively and disparities in access to palliative care or hospice services. ⋯ The percentage of patients who died in an acute care hospital is higher than the 17% U.S. benchmark. Other indicators of receiving aggressive EOL care are consistent with existing care quality benchmarks. The considerable regional variation, however, indicates potential for system improvements.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2014
The role of a low-dose ketamine-midazolam regimen in the management of severe painful crisis in patients with sickle cell disease.
Acute pain is one of the main causes of hospital admission in sickle cell disease, with variable intensity and unpredictable onset and duration. ⋯ Low-dose ketamine-midazolam IV infusion might be effective in reducing pain and opioid requirements in patients with sickle cell disease with severe painful crisis. Further controlled studies are required to prove this effect.