The role of geriatricians in hospital palliative care units for elderly patients affected by end stage diseases.

Objective: To show the importance of geriatricians in the assessment and treatment of patients with terminal illnesses requiring palliative care.

Methods: This was a retrospective epidemiological study, in which the authors used data relating to 229 patients with terminal stage cancer/advanced chronic diseases, which were evaluated by a palliative care team and collected from January to December 2018.

Results: The average age of the sample was 72 years.

Infections in hospitalised patients affected by end-stage diseases: a narrative overview.

Aim: To analyse the presence and treatment of infections in hospitalised terminal patients by identifying potential risk factors.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study using health data from 229 terminally ill patients (evaluated by our hospital palliative care team (HPCT) hospitalised from January to December 2018.

Results: A total of two types of infections were identified: blood flow infection (through blood cultures) and pneumonia (through radiological examinations), while the other cases of infection remained unknown.

Clinical Care Conditions and Needs of Palliative Care Patients from Five Italian Regions: Preliminary Data of the DEMETRA Project.

In order to plan the right palliative care for patients and their families, it is essential to have detailed information about patients' needs. To gain insight into these needs, we analyzed five Italian local palliative care networks and assessed the clinical care conditions of patients facing the complexities of advanced and chronic disease. A longitudinal, observational, noninterventional study was carried out in five Italian regions from May 2017 to November 2018.

The benefits of a hospital palliative care team.

Aim: To investigate the association between a hospital palliative care unit assessment and hospital outcome.

Methods: This was a prospective cohort study. Data were assessed from all patients treated and followed by the hospital palliative care team (HPCT) from November 2016 until December 2017.

The Path of Cicely Saunders: The "Peculiar Beauty" of Palliative Care.

This paper is aimed at focusing on the writings and the experience of the Hospice movement Founder, Dame Cicely Saunders. The in-depth analysis carried out had the objective of verifying if "the way" of Cicely to understand, live and propose palliative care was still current and "beautiful", so that we can nowadays refer to her fascinating "Original Palliative Care". With "beauty" we mean, on the one hand, a way able to allow a personal path of research of the meaning of the disease and of the care, both for those who care and for those who are cared for.