Aproximación a los cuidados paliativos en las enfermedades avanzadas no malignas

Abstract

Nowadays Palliative Medicine (PM) is changing from a specific point of view towards patients with advanced cancer, to another more generic that also keep in mind patients with advanced non malignant disease. Likewise it is more and more deeply rooted customs that the end-of-life care has become a fundamental right of our Society. But as a matter of fact, these patients with non-cancer diseases unusually go into a Palliative Care (PC) programme. It is known the difficulty to diagnosis the end of life clinical condition (EOLCC) in them. In this article we comment the justification and restriction of PC in patients with non-malignant cancer diseases, as well as the paradoxical situation to come out, in spite of the increasing programes of PC gradually. But above all we propose in a practical way resolve when a patient with non malignant organ advanced disease (NMOAD) could be subsidiary of PC. For that purpose we have to know the diagnosis and the prognostic factors in connection with the EOLCC of the NMOAD more common (advanced chronical pulmonary disease, advanced chronical heart failure, advanced cirrhosis hepatic, advanced chronical renal failure and very evolved dementia), to set up an appropriate make decisions keeping in mind the preferences and wishes of the patient and family, to document and record in the clinical history all those parameters and offerer to the patient the treatment more suitable with the intention to get a worthy death bearing in mind clinical, cultural and ethical standards. It is pointed out the necessity to carry out prospective studies to help setting up some inclusion criterions in PC programmes for patients with NMOAD. Copyright © 2008 Aran Ediciones, s.l.