[Palliative sedation: Current situation and areas of improvement].

Objective: To determine the prevalence, epidemiology and registration status of palliative sedation (PS) prevalence in a teaching hospital, and to establish areas for improvement.

Methods: A descriptive retrospective analysis was designed using the records from cancer patients who died between October and December 2010. The variables included were: epidemiological, inpatient unit, refractory symptom, drugs and dosages, and patient participation in the decision making process.

Influence of HLA matching on survival in heart transplantation.

Background: In renal transplantation, the degree of HLA matching has been reported to be negatively correlated with graft loss, with the number of rejections with complications. This association is less clear in heart transplantation, where there are contradictory studies, although most are consistent with those in renal transplantation. The objective of this study was to analyze differences in the probability of survival and the incidence of complications during follow-up according to the degree of HLA-A, -B, and -DR matching.