RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The increase in the incidence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) led to more hospital admissions and deaths, and coincided with an increased need for palliative care. The new circumstances required palliative care services to be flexible and to develop response strategies. AIM: To synthesise studies including COVID-19 patients to gain insight into how many patients were referred to hospital-based palliative care services, the characteristics and palliative care needs of these patients and the reasons for referral. DESIGN: A systematic literature search was conducted in January 2022 using the PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycInfo databases. RESULTS: Twenty-seven studies were identified. The results show that in 16% of all COVID-19 inpatients and 55% of all deceased COVID-19 inpatients were referred to a palliative care service. The median time from hospital admission to referral was 4 days and from referral to death was 2 days. COVID-19 inpatients were frequently referred for end-of-life care management (52%), had ≥1 comorbidities (84%), and suffered from shortness of breath/dyspnea (45%). CONCLUSIONS: The care provided was generally acute, with a high proportion of end-of-life care referrals and a short time period from hospital admission to referral and from referral to death. This highlights the importance of early integration of palliative care into emergency department (ED) care of critically ill patients.
RESUMO
Experiencing pain and insufficient relief can be devastating and negatively affect a patient's quality of life. Developments in oncology such as new treatments and adjusted pain management guidelines may have influenced the prevalence of cancer pain and severity in patients. This review aims to provide an overview of the prevalence and severity of pain in cancer patients in the 2014-2021 literature period. A systematic literature search was performed using the databases PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane. Titles and abstracts were screened, and full texts were evaluated and assessed on methodological quality. A meta-analysis was performed on the pooled prevalence and severity rates. A meta-regression analysis was used to explore differences between treatment groups. We identified 10,637 studies, of which 444 studies were included. The overall prevalence of pain was 44.5%. Moderate to severe pain was experienced by 30.6% of the patients, a lower proportion compared to previous research. Pain experienced by cancer survivors was significantly lower compared to most treatment groups. Our results imply that both the prevalence of pain and pain severity declined in the past decade. Increased attention to the assessment and management of pain might have fostered the decline in the prevalence and severity of pain.
RESUMO
Background: Regional palliative care consultation (PCC) teams aim to support health care professionals by telephone in providing quality palliative care (PC) in the Netherlands. Objectives: The study aims to assess trends in the number and characteristics of PC telephone consultations in the Netherlands between 2004 and 2019. Design: A retrospective observational study reviewed data from the Dutch national register for PC consultations by telephone (PRADO). To assess trends in the number of consultations, three time periods were defined: 2004-2008, 2009-2013, and 2014-2019. All analyses were conducted using STATA. Results: A total of 83,554 PC telephone consultations were analyzed. There was a slight decrease in the number of consultations since 2014, from 5811 (2014) to 4914 (2019). The Dutch PCC telephone helpdesk was mainly consulted by general practitioners, with pharmacological issues (65%) and pain (44%) being the main concerns. The data included 73,833 patients, of whom 63% were 65 years or older (18-109) and 51% were male. The proportion of noncancer patients increased during the selected time periods, 2004-2008 (11%), 2009-2013 (16%), and 2014-2019 (22%). The proportion of consultations requested for hospitalized patients was higher in 2014-2019 (7.9%) than in 2009-2013 (4.5%). Conclusion: Dutch PC telephone consultations have changed over time. More PC telephone consultations were held for hospitalized patients and noncancer diseases over the past years. These trends are in line with the shift toward more integrated PC in which different services collaborate.
