Articles: palliative-care.
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The care of seriously ill and dying patients necessitates a philosophic and ethical basis, without which unacceptable patterns of practice may develop. Several problems are described: inadequate or unskilled communication of information, withdrawal by the physician, patient labelling and poor health care. Palliative care must be based on a philosophy that acknowledges the inherent worth and dignity of each person. ⋯ The first and most important of these is the need to regard patients as unique people with a right to compassion, gentle truth, autonomy in decision-making and excellence in physicial and psychospiritual care. Beneficence obliges us not only to relieve suffering but also to enhance the patient's quality of life whenever possible. Nonmaleficence and justice require allocation of sufficient health care resources of the type necessary to provide high-quality care and prevent patients from coming to harm.
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Southern medical journal · Apr 1991
Improving palliation in pancreatic cancer: intraoperative celiac plexus block for pain relief.
Most patients with pancreatic carcinoma are not curable. Surgical palliation of obstructive jaundice and gastric outlet obstruction leaves many patients with severe pain from pancreatic carcinoma. Anesthesiologists have drawn increasing attention to the successful use of postoperative percutaneous celiac plexus block for the treatment of pancreatic pain. ⋯ Most patients had excellent pain relief for at least 2 months or until death. Because most patients treated surgically for pancreatic carcinoma are receiving only palliation with biliary bypass or gastroenterostomy, surgeons should pay increased attention to pain relief. Operative celiac plexus block is easy, safe, and highly effective in relieving the agonizing pain of pancreatic carcinoma.