ABSTRACT
Rehabilitation therapy is important for patients with cancer, especially for those with terminal stage cancer who have physical malfunction and psychological distress. By setting goals according to patients' wishes, rehabilitation therapy may positively affect physical activity. In this study, we reported the implementation of rehabilitation training outside the hospital as a rehabilitation treatment. A 64-year-old man was diagnosed as having multiple brain metastases from lung cancer. The patient was admitted to the palliative care ward without active treatment according to his wish and was referred to the rehabilitation department. The patient had mild right hemiplegia at the time of initial examination and therefore required assistance for walking and eating. On the 51st day of the intervention, he requested to visit the ramen restaurant of his friend, which recently opened. Going out independently to the restaurant served as his practical training for improving his quality of life (QOL). This outing further expanded his activities of daily living, which made him motivated to treat his cancer. On the 71st day of intervention, he was discharged from the hospital and underwent outpatient examination. Therefore, the role of treatment in palliative care is to achieve the highest possible QOL. In this case, providing options according to the patients' wishes, such as outing, is believed to be effective in cancer treatment
ABSTRACT
Severe burn injuries often result in significant long-term physical complications with scarring and contractures, but cancers associated with chronic burn scars are relatively rare. We report a case of a 58-year-old man with skin cancer arising from a healed burn scar. He initially suffered from an extensive fire burn on both lower limbs as a child. The burn scars extended from his upper thighs to his toes bilaterally and caused severe contractures which immobilized the ankles in plantar flexion. Two years ago, he noticed a small ulcerated lesion on the right heel and self-treated it with topical ointments. However, the ulcer increased in size and became malodorous. He presented to a clinic with a large, ulcerated, tumorous lesion, and histology proved it to be squamous cell carcinoma. He subsequently underwent a right below-the-knee amputation, and the previous scars presented on the stump. Thus the patient received a total surface bearing prosthesis with an Icelandic roll-on silicone socket system, which is ideal for patients with extensive scarring at the stump because it may reduce prosthesis-induced stump injuries by evenly distributing the patient's weight in the socket. After he left the hospital, he walked so far with the prosthesis every day that small ulcers often developed at the right popliteal fossa. However, he did not take care to treat these lesions properly, so we had to educate him on how to treat them. Patients such as these will often require education for self-management, family involvement and regular follow-up to monitor scar ulceration and watch out for any malignant transformation.