BACKGROUND Physical therapy encompasses the skilled treatment and care for patients across the life span through a multitude of different practice settings. This includes caring for individuals within end-of-life or palliative care settings. The goal of treatment in this stage of care is to relieve physical, social, psychological, and spiritual suffering in order to improve overall quality of l...

BACKGROUND The study evaluates frequency of and indications for disease-related radiotherapy in the palliative breast cancer (BC) situation and analyzes in which phase of the palliative disease course radiotherapy was applied. PATIENTS & METHODS 340 patients who developed distant metastatic disease (DMD) and died (i.e. patients with completed disease courses) were analyzed. RESULTS 165 pati...

BACKGROUND Although similar to cancer patients regarding symptom burden and prognosis, patients with heart failure (HF) tend to receive palliative care far less frequently. We sought to explore factors perceived by cardiology, primary care, and palliative care providers to impede palliative care referral for HF patients. METHODS AND RESULTS We conducted semistructured interviews regarding (1)...

Introduction: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety profile of bone palliative therapy following administration of 153Sm-EDTMP in patients with intractable metastatic bone pain. Methods: Sixteen patients (9 male, 7 female) aged 29-80 years (57.3±16.7 years) with severe metastasis-related bone pain resistant to analgesic medications were enrolled in the...

Although there are various types of sedation, including intermittent and respite sedation, and sedation as a side effect of medications such as opioids,2 continuous palliative sedation therapy (CPST) at or near the end of life is the focus of this article. Continuous palliative sedation therapy is the use of ongoing sedation for symptom management, considered during the end of life when a patie...

BACKGROUND While anesthesiologist's involvement in palliative care has been widely researched, extensive data on palliative patients under anesthesiological care in the operating room is missing. This study was performed to assess the incidence, demographics, and outcome of palliative patients under anesthesiological care. METHODS We conducted a single-center retrospective chart review of all...

conclusions the right ventricular outflow tract palliation in children with cyanotic chd leads to long-term favorable outcome regarding improvement in oxygen saturation, increase in z score of both left and right pulmonary arteries and also considerable decrease in spell. also, death and complications are rare following rvot palliation. background the right ventricular outflow tract (rvot) pall...

BACKGROUND Intracellular components, such as nucleosomal DNA and cytokeratins, are released from cells during apoptosis, which occurs spontaneously in elevated amounts in patients with various tumors, as well as during treatment with chemotherapeutic drugs. PATIENTS AND METHODS Sera of 30 patients with colorectal cancer, stage Dukes' B to D, who received adjuvant (N=15) or palliative (N=15) c...

OBJECTIVE To examine drug treatment in nursing home patients at the end of life, and identify predictors of palliative drug therapy. DESIGN A historical cohort study. SETTING Three urban nursing homes in Norway. SUBJECTS All patients admitted from January 2008 and deceased before February 2013. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Drug prescriptions, diagnoses, and demographic data were collected from...

BACKGROUND Music therapy is increasingly used as an adjunct therapy to support symptom management in palliative care. However, studies to date have paid little attention to the processes that lead to changes in patient outcomes. To fill this gap, we examined the processes and experiences involved in the introduction of music therapy as an adjunct complementary therapy to palliative care in a ho...