Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
Malignant hematologic oncology referrals to an outpatient palliative care clinic at a tertiary cancer center.
Hematological malignancies represent a heterogeneous group of diseases with variable and often unpredictable illness trajectories. Comparisons between hematological and solid tumor malignancy referrals to an outpatient palliative care clinic have not been explored. ⋯ Patients with hematological malignancies experience at least similar symptom burden to those with solid tumor malignancies referred to a palliative care clinic, and worse performance status, factors that should be considered when designing palliative care clinic interventions for patients with hematological malignancies.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
Symptom Documentation in Unstructured Palliative Care Notes of Children and Adolescents with Cancer.
Children and adolescents with cancer experiencing complex symptoms can benefit from subspeciality palliative care. However, standardized methods of symptom documentation by pediatric palliative care teams are lacking. Understanding current approaches to symptom documentation will inform next steps to optimize symptom support. ⋯ Palliative care clinicians routinely documented the co-occurrence of multiple complex symptoms experienced by children and adolescents with cancer. Unstructured progress notes captured evidence of symptom impact on daily life. Clinicians may benefit from a systematic approach to document symptoms in the clinical record which supports symptom identification and communication across clinical teams.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
ReviewEfficacy of Traditional, Complementary, and Integrative Medicine in Pain and Psychological Distress Management for Pediatric Palliative Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Traditional, complementary, and integrative medicine (TCIM) is being increasingly used to manage symptoms in patients with palliative needs. However, there is a lack of evidence to guide its use in the pediatric palliative care (PPC) setting. ⋯ Existing evidence supports the therapeutic benefits of music therapy, massage, and hypnosis on relieving pain and anxiety symptoms in the PPC setting, though the evidence is of low-to-moderate quality.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
Association of Palliative Care Timing with End-of-Life Quality in Children with Heart Disease.
Children with heart disease are at risk for early mortality and parents often perceive suffering at end-of-life (EOL). Involvement of pediatric palliative care (PPC) is a proposed quality measure at the EOL in children with cancer, and early PPC involvement is associated with other quality measures. The impact of early PPC involvement on EOL quality is unknown in children with heart disease. ⋯ Our findings may indicate that quality indicators extrapolated from pediatric oncology do not apply to children with heart disease, as they have notably different disease trajectories and intervention options. We recommend defining high-quality EOL care indicators for children with heart disease as a priority.