Clinic-based outpatient palliative care before hospice is associated with longer hospice length of service.

Context: Outpatient nonhospice palliative care has been shown to provide many benefits to patients facing advanced illness, but such services remain uncommon in the U.S. Little is known about the association between clinic-based outpatient palliative care consultation and the timing of hospice enrollment.

Opioid prescribing practices before and after initiation of palliative care in outpatients.

Context: Prescription Monitoring Programs (PMPs) are being developed and implemented in many states to deter abuse, diversion, and overdose, and physicians may use PMPs to help guide their treatment choices for individual patients.

Objectives: To evaluate the changes in prescribing practices and pain score outcomes in patients with cancer before and after an initial consult in an outpatient palliative care clinic.

Methods: This is a retrospective study with a sample of 60 consecutive patients who had been referred by oncologists for difficult-to-manage pain and whose initial palliative care consult was with either of the two physicians in the outpatient palliative care clinic.

Analysis of poor outcomes after laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding.

Background: Recent studies document excess weight loss (EWL) of more than 50% with the laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LGB). This study reviews the LGB experience at an urban academic center in terms of complications, reoperative rates, and comorbidities.

Methods: In this study, 144 consecutive patients undergoing LGB were prospectively reviewed.