Articles: palliative-care.
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Support Care Cancer · Nov 1996
Pain and symptom control for cancer patients at the University Hospital in Essen: integration of specialists' knowledge into routine work.
At the University Hospital of Essen, supportive care for patients with cancer and other painful diseases is carried out by an interdisciplinary ambulant pain clinic supported by a pain conference with delegates from all departments involved in the care of cancer patients as permanent members. More than 600 in- and outpatients per year are treated by this institution. This model tends to integrate supportive care into the overall therapeutic concept and routine work and to improve education in this field by bedside teaching and training of local specialists in every department. ⋯ Scientific research in the field of palliative care, including supportive care, is a further concern of the pain clinic. Evaluation of the model shows that the concept has been realized within a decentralized and interdisciplinary setting; it must, of course, be borne in mind that the staff of the pain control clinic are deeply committed to their work. In conclusion, the way supportive care is realized in Essen can be recommended for large hospitals, and especially for medical schools.
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The problems related to requests for euthanasia by terminal patients; the variations in attitude of palliative care physicians and the possibility that availability of the best palliative care might obviate the problem by eliminating requests for euthanasia, are under discussion. ⋯ The attitudes of physicians practising palliative care in Italy are not different from those reported by previous studies which investigated the attitude of other health professionals. There was no agreement about whether the best palliative care might reduce requests for euthanasia by terminal patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Epidural and subcutaneous morphine in the management of cancer pain: a double-blind cross-over study.
Ten patients who suffered from severe cancer-related pain participated in a randomised, double-blind and cross-over study to compare the effectiveness and acceptability of epidural and subcutaneous administration of morphine. The patients titrated themselves pain-free in 48 h using a patient controlled analgesia system. ⋯ The two modes of morphine administration turned out to be comparable in terms of both effectiveness and acceptability. Both treatments provided better pain relief with less adverse effects compared with the prestudy oral morphine treatment.
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Jt Comm J Qual Improv · Oct 1996
Cancer pain management: pilot implementation of the AHCPR guideline in Utah.
Using the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research's (AHCPR's) 1994 Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Cancer Pain, HealthInsight, the peer review organization for Utah and Nevada, organized a cooperative project with physicians and nurses from seven acute care hospitals in Utah. The project's purpose was to adapt the guideline into action plans for participating hospitals and provide the tools necessary to address six "core" guidelines-to assess and relieve pain, educate the patient/family and health care workers, measure patient satisfaction, and provide a continuum of care postdischarge. GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT: The guidelines were further adapted to meet the needs of the individual hospitals and were implemented in January 1995. Baseline data was collected on 10 patient records per hospital. ⋯ The project team continues to monitor progress in guideline implementation. Surveys demonstrate that, at the time of diagnosis, up to 45% of cancer patients experience moderate to severe pain; 65%-90% experience severe pain when cancer reaches the advanced stages. Unrelieved cancer pain can cause intense suffering, diminished activity, loss of appetite, and loss of sleep.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Lack of effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation upon experimentally induced delayed onset muscle soreness in humans.
The aim of the current study, for which ethical approval was obtained, was to assess the hypoalgesic efficacy of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) upon acute stage (72 h) experimentally induced delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). TENS naive subjects (n = 48; 24 male and 24 female) were recruited, screened for relevant pathology and randomly allocated to one of four experimental groups: control, placebo, low TENS (200 microseconds; 4 Hz) or high TENS group (200 microseconds; 110 Hz). DOMS was induced in a standardised fashion in the non-dominant elbow flexors of all subjects by repeated eccentric exercise. ⋯ Measurements were taken before and after treatment under controlled double blinded conditions. Analysis of results using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc tests showed some inconsistent isolated effects of high TENS (110 Hz) compared to the other conditions upon resting angle and flexion scores; no significant effects were found for any of the other variables. These results provide no convincing evidence for any measurable hypoalgesic effects of TENS upon DOMS-associated pain at the stimulation parameters used here.