Case Series of Akathisia in Palliative Medicine: Patient Perspective and Efficacy of Procyclidine in Diagnosis and Management.

Aims: Akathisia is a disturbing, reversible but under-diagnosed extrapyramidal side effect of medications used in palliative medicine. We assessed patients' subjective experience of akathisia and response to procyclidine, an anticholinergic used to treat extrapyramidal effects. We also aimed to discuss future areas of research and alternatives to akathisia-causing medications.

Extreme Symptom Burden for Patients With COVID-19 at the End of Life; Extrapolation of Knowledge Gained to Achieve Sustained Comfort and Dignity for all Patients in Their Last Days of Life.

Background: We describe two complex cases in the setting of COVID-19 at the End of Life, to enhance learning for all patients.

Case Presentation: Maintenance of sustained comfort in two cases required multiple drugs, specifically selected for symptoms that necessitated three separate pumps delivering continuous 24-hour subcutaneous infusion.

Case Management: Management of sustained comfort included opioid, midazolam, anti-secretory, diclofenac for intractable temperature, phenobarbital for extreme agitation, in one, where seizure activity was present, while insomnia, was a prominent feature of another.

Methadone prescribed as an analgesic by a specialist palliative medicine team in an acute hospital inpatient setting: retrospective study.

Unlabelled: Emerging evidence suggests that methadone has a specific role in the management of treatment resistant cancer-related pain.

Objectives: To investigate the utilisation pattern, safety and efficacy of methadone prescribed as an analgesic for the management of complex cancer-related pain in an acute hospital inpatient setting.

Methods: A retrospective longitudinal observational study of patients prescribed methadone as an analgesic between April 2020 and July 2021 was performed.

Disturbing and distressing: a mixed methods study on the psychological impact of end of life care on junior doctors.

Background: The Irish Medical Council has identified gaps in knowledge and communications skills of new-entrant doctors in legal, ethical and practical aspects of end of life care.

Aims: To determine the frequency with which junior doctors deal with end of life care and patient death and to evaluate the impact this has on their psychological wellbeing.

Design: A questionnaire was distributed to junior doctors to determine the frequency with which the participants had managed a patient at end of life.

Thrombolysis and iliofemoral vein stent placement in cancer patients with lower extremity swelling attributed to lymphedema.

Purpose: To assess the effects of iliofemoral vein stent placement on symptomatic lower extremity swelling (LES), presumed to be lymphedema, in patients with cancer.

Materials And Methods: During the period 2005-2013, 62 patients (38 female; age, 60.4 y ± 15.

Effect of chemotherapy on quality of life in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Purpose: This study was conducted to evaluate the extent to which quality of life (QoL) assessment has been incorporated into clinical trials of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving palliative chemotherapy.

Patients And Methods: Phase III trials for patients with NSCLC treated with palliative chemotherapy were identified by a literature search of PubMed. All abstracts and relevant articles from August 1986 to October 2011 were reviewed.