Masui. The Japanese journal of anesthesiology
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Governmental policies recommend the palliative care at home for cancer patients. However, there are some barriers to discharge cancer patients from the hospital who want to receive end-of-life care at their homes. Anesthesiologists whose main job is to perform general anesthesia in the operating theater usually have little contact with general practitioners giving community palliative care. So it is important to communicate each other to make opportunities to discuss an organized system and care plan for these patients, and to improve information transfer.
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Palliative care prevents and relieves total pain of patients and their families and improves their quality of life. The author describes the work of anesthesiologists in palliative care unit as ward staffs. The need for palliative care units is increasing and new palliative care units are being established throughout Japan. ⋯ Anesthesiologists manage the patients who need to be sedated for relief of refractory sufferings by sedative drugs in palliative care unit It is important that we anesthesiologists walk alongside the patients when they need to be heard in the end of life stage. We expect that it is a key point to palliate spiritual pain of the patients. I hope many young anesthesiologists serve as capable members in the palliative care unit in the future.