Journal of pain and symptom management
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PC-FACS (FastArticleCriticalSummaries forClinicians inPalliativeCare) provides hospice and palliative care clinicians with concise summaries of the most important findings from more than 100 medical and scientific journals. If you have colleagues who would benefit from receiving PCFACS, please encourage them to join the AAHPM at aahpm.org. Comments from readers are welcomed at pcfacs@aahpm.org.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2020
Randomized Controlled TrialA Phase II Randomized Controlled Trial of Renshen Yangrong Tang Herbal Extract Granules for Fatigue Reduction in Cancer Survivors.
Based on the traditional Chinese medicine theory, Renshen Yangrong Tang (RSYRT), which is a mixture of 12 herbs, was commonly used as a pharmacological option in China for fatigue management by correcting Qi deficiency. ⋯ Compared with control therapy, RSYRT therapy elicits a statistical and clinical improvement of fatigue severity and functioning. The effectiveness of RSYRT in managing cancer-related fatigue warrants further study in the real world.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2020
Reliability and Validity of the Korean Language Version of the U.S. National Cancer Institute's Patient-Reported Outcomes Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events.
To improve precision and accuracy in the capture of symptomatic adverse events (AEs) by self-report, the U.S. National Cancer Institute has developed a library of 124 patient-reported outcome (PRO) items reflecting 78 symptomatic AEs drawn from the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE). The PRO-CTCAE™ item library has been translated and linguistically validated in the Korean language. ⋯ PRO-CTCAE-Korean is a reliable and valid instrument to capture symptomatic AEs by self-report in patients on cancer clinical trials.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · May 2020
ReviewHeart Failure: A review of disease, therapies and medications with a focus on symptoms, function, and quality of life.
Despite significant advances in heart failure (HF) treatment, HF remains a progressive, extremely symptomatic, and terminal disease with a median survival of 2.1 years after diagnosis. HF often leads to a constellation of symptoms, including dyspnea, fatigue, depression, anxiety, insomnia, pain, and worsened cognitive function. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their caregivers facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness and therefore is well suited to support these patients. ⋯ This review describes HF and current targeted therapies and their effects on symptoms, hospital admission rates, exercise performance, HRQL, and survival. Pharmacological interactions with and precautions related to commonly used palliative care medications are reviewed. The goal of this review is to equip palliative care clinicians with information to make evidence-based decisions while managing the balance between optimal disease management and patient quality of life.
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Patients with severe burns may face distressing symptoms with a high risk of mortality as a result of their injury. The role of palliative care in burns management remains unclear. ⋯ Palliative care is applicable in burns management, but its current role is mostly confined to the end-of-life period, suggesting that it is not been fully integrated in the management process. Evidence-based guidelines are needed to support the integration and delivery of palliative care in the burn patient population.