Palliative medicine
-
Palliative medicine · Jan 1999
Review Case ReportsThe role of endoscopic biliary stents in palliative care.
This article reviews the role of endoscopic biliary stents in palliative care. In particular it focuses on the indications for stents, and recognition and management of possible complications. These issues are illustrated with three case reports.
-
Palliative medicine · Jan 1999
ReviewThe impact of different models of specialist palliative care on patients' quality of life: a systematic literature review.
This study set out to systematically review the research evidence about the impact of alternative models of specialist palliative care on the quality of life of patients. Eighty-six relevant papers were identified and reviewed, including 22 descriptive and 27 comparative studies. We found few comparative trials of reasonable quality. ⋯ These negative findings may be due to the limitations of the assessment tools used. There is a need for larger studies to provide clear evidence as to whether specialist palliative care services provide improvements in patients' quality of life. This review does not exclude the possibility that models of care might be justifiable on other grounds such as patient preference or cost-effectiveness.