Thoughts and feelings of in-patients with advanced terminal cancer: implications for terminal care improvement.

The purpose of this study was to clarify how terminally ill patients think and feel while hospitalized, thereby providing some insight into improving the quality of terminal care. The subjects of the study were eight terminally ill patients with cancer. The researchers obtained the patients' consent and their doctors' permission prior to conducting the interviews. Individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted. The patients' thoughts and feelings were extracted and then categorized according to particular themes. As a result, we came up with four major categories: maintaining pain control, living an ordinary life, hoping for improvement of physical condition, and having family nearby. The desire to live life to its fullest given their situation, as well as to maintain a hopeful attitude about their future proved very important. The presence of family also played a crucial role. These factors must be taken into consideration in achieving better care for terminally ill patients.

[A case report of left postero-lateral thoracotomy for simultaneous CABG and left lower lobectomy].

Surgical management of patients with concomitant resectable lung lesions and critical cardiac disease is controversial. We report a case of concomitant pulmonary and cardiac surgery via a left thoracotomy. A 67-year-old male was admitted to our hospital complaining of recurrent bloody sputum and an abnormal shadow on chest X-ray. Chest CT and MRI showed a tumor in the left lower lobe (S10), with invasion of the diaphragm. A diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma was obtained by transbronchial lung biopsy. The patient had a history of angina pectoris, and stress testing was positive. Coronary angiography showed 90% stenosis at segment 5, suggesting a risk of perioperative or postoperative myocardial infarction. This necessitated simultaneous surgical treatment for lung cancer and ischemic heart disease. A lobectomy of the left lower lung was performed, followed by coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), using the great saphenous vein. The postoperative course was uneventful except for the occurrence of cholecystitis. Lung cancer and ischemic heart disease can be safely treated simultaneously via a single incision, with and benefit for selected patients.

[A case of bilateral coronary artery fistulae into main pulmonary artery].

A case of coronary-pulmonary artery fistulae was presented with the review of the literature. A 46-year-old man was admitted to our department with an ischemic change in leads III, a VF on ECG. Although he had no complaint, the exercise ECG showed significant depression of ST segment in leads II, III, V4, V5. Coronary angiography revealed fistulae from left anterior descending branch to main pulmonary artery, and also from right coronary artery to main pulmonary artery. No coronary organic narrowing were found. Ligation of the fistulae was performed and postoperative course was uneventful.

[ECMO treatment for ARDS].

Between February 1988 and March 1990, ECMO was performed (veno-arterial perfusion; 3 cases, venovenous; one case) is 4 ARDS patients. However no patient could be weaned from ECMO (32-80 hours) and all died. The causes of deaths were attributed to the complications of ARDS itself that existed before ECMO therapy and ECMO was highly effective in providing temporally life support. We consider that entry criteria of ECMO should not be based on gas exchange alone and that lung compliance and circulatory insufficiency should be taken into account.