Journal of palliative medicine
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The use of medical cannabis is increasing significantly throughout the United States in spite of limited and sometimes contradictory data about its effectiveness. Palliative care providers are being asked to consider cannabis as part of symptom-directed treatment regimens although many providers have limited experience recommending medical cannabis and were trained before it was commercially available. This article seeks to dispel myths about medical cannabis and provides a balanced view of the benefits and burdens of this therapeutic option, providing evidence where it exists and offering practicing clinicians guidance on conditions in which medical cannabis is likely to be helpful or burdensome.
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The development of palliative care in Peru remains limited, particularly for nononcological services, such as neurology. The goal of this study was to explore attitudes toward and knowledge about palliative and end-of-life care among patients, families, nurses, and doctors in a specialized neurological institute in Lima, Peru. ⋯ Our study highlights opportunities to enhance palliative care and communication education for neurology providers and the public in Peru, a country that currently has no palliative care training program and no legal basis for advance directives.
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Intravenous lidocaine is an option for intractable pain caused by advancing cancer and wound care. We report a case of intractable cancer pain and wound care pain managed with concurrent use of lidocaine administered as a twice daily intravenous bolus in addition to continuous intravenous infusion. ⋯ Intravenous lidocaine added to the efficacy of standard analgesic medications and nerve block procedures in our patient. This case demonstrates increasing blood lidocaine levels with continuous intravenous infusion despite stable clinical parameters and laboratory markers of major organ function. Monitoring lidocaine levels is a prudent course of action to identify drug accumulation with administration of lidocaine by continuous intravenous infusion.