Articles: palliative-care.
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Z Arztl Fortbild Qualitatssich · Sep 2000
[Consideration, assessment and treatment of difficulty in breathing in palliative medicine].
Next to pain, the most frequent fear of dying patients, their relatives and doctors in attendance is to suffocate, even if there is no significant dyspnoea. During their progress of disease, around half (40-60%) of all tumour patients suffer from difficulty in breathing. This is due to many reasons, which include the entire differential diagnosis of dyspnoea as well as psychological and social aspects. ⋯ Besides application of demand drugs as morphine and lorazepam the most important therapy against asphyxia is the individual treatment of symptoms. All people involved should be educated in general treatment, nursing and psychological care to reduce the dying patient's fear of suffocation. This will result in the reduction of the patients states of panic and therefore allow them to die in a more peaceful way.
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Coping with ulcerating or bleeding tumours or metastases of the skin that are not suitable for curative or palliative treatment poses a problem for patients, doctors and nursing staff. Treatment should focus on limiting local and systemic infection, combating unpleasant odours and reducing bleeding. ⋯ Treatment depends on the nature and site of the tumour and should be tailored to and carried out in consultation with the patient, the treating specialist and the oncology nursing team. The goal of treatment is to optimize the quality of life of patients in the terminal phase.
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The clinical picture of bone metastases is manifested by pain and loss of mechanical stability. Standard treatment options for bone metastases include external beam radiotherapy and the use of analgesics. Due to a large number of lesions in many patients, the use of radionuclide therapy with beta emitters may be preferable. Re-186 hydroxyethylidene diphosphonate (Re-186 HEDP) is one of the radiopharmaceuticals suitable for palliative treatment of metastatic bone pain. The aim of this study was to investigate palliative and side effects of Re-186 HEDP in patients with different types of cancers. ⋯ It is concluded that Re-186 HEDP is a highly effective agent in the palliation of metastatic bone pain in patients with prostate, breast and rectum cancer, but not effective in lung cancer. On the other hand, Re-186 seems to be a good alternative to Sr-89 because of its preferable physical characteristics (such as short half life and gamma energy emission), low side effect profile, early response and repeatability.