Advance Care Planning in Huntington Disease: The Elderly Care Physician's Perspective.

Objective: Huntington disease (HD) has a poor prognosis. Decision-making capacity and communication ability may become impaired as the disease progresses. Therefore, HD patients are encouraged to engage in advance care planning (ACP).

Nursing home residents with Huntington's disease: Heterogeneity in characteristics and functioning.

Background: In Huntington's disease (HD), admission to a nursing home (NH) is required in advanced disease stages. To gain insight in care needs, more knowledge is needed on the functioning of this group.

Objective: Describing patient and disease characteristics, their functioning, and gender differences.

External Validation and User Experiences of the ProPal-COPD Tool to Identify the Palliative Phase in COPD.

Background: Difficulty predicting prognosis is a major barrier to timely palliative care provision for patients with COPD. The ProPal-COPD tool, combining six clinical indicators and the Surprise Question (SQ), aims to predict 1-year mortality as a proxy for palliative care needs. It appeared to be a promising tool for healthcare providers to identify patients with COPD who could benefit from palliative care.

Implementation of a palliative care intervention for patients with COPD - a mixed methods process evaluation of the COMPASSION study.

Objectives: Little direction exists on how to effectively implement palliative care for patients with COPD. In the COMPASSION study, we developed, executed, and evaluated a multifaceted implementation strategy to improve the uptake of region-tailored palliative care intervention components into routine COPD care. We evaluated the implementation strategy and assessed the implementation process, barriers, and facilitators.

Provision of Palliative Care in Patients with COPD: A Survey Among Pulmonologists and General Practitioners.

Introduction: Patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience significant symptom burden, leading to poor quality of life. Although guidelines recommend palliative care for these patients, this is not widely implemented and prevents them from receiving optimal care.

Objective: A national survey was performed to map the current content and organization of palliative care provision for patients with COPD by pulmonologists and general practitioners (GPs) in the Netherlands.

Gaining insight into the views of outpatients with Huntington's disease regarding their future and the way they deal with their poor prognosis: a qualitative study.

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) has a poor prognosis. Decision-making capacity and communication ability may become lost as the disease progresses. Therefore, HD patients are encouraged to engage in advance care planning (ACP).

A cluster randomized controlled trial on a multifaceted implementation strategy to promote integrated palliative care in COPD: study protocol of the COMPASSION study.

Background: Despite the urgent need for palliative care for patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), it is not yet daily practice. Important factors influencing the provision of palliative care are adequate communication skills, knowing when to start palliative care and continuity of care. In the COMPASSION study, we address these factors by implementing an integrated palliative care approach for patients with COPD and their informal caregivers.

Awareness and its relationships with neuropsychiatric symptoms in people with Korsakoff syndrome or other alcohol-related cognitive disorders living in specialized nursing homes.

Objectives: Impaired awareness of functional deficits is often observed in people with Korsakoff syndrome (KS) and may result in refusal of care, although this area has been understudied. This study aimed to investigate levels of impaired awareness and their relationships with neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in people with KS residing in specialized nursing homes.

Methods: A cross-sectional, observational study was conducted among 215 residents with KS or other alcohol-related cognitive disorders.

Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in People With Korsakoff Syndrome and Other Alcohol-Related Cognitive Disorders Living in Specialized Long-Term Care Facilities: Prevalence, Severity, and Associated Caregiver Distress.

Objectives: Caring for people with Korsakoff syndrome (KS) residing in specialized long-term care facilities (LTCFs) can be distressing because of challenging neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). However, good-quality studies on NPS in this under-researched population are lacking. This study examined the prevalence and severity of NPS in people with KS living in specialized LTCFs and the associated caregiver distress.

Nurse-led follow-up at home vs. conventional medical outpatient clinic follow-up in patients with incurable upper gastrointestinal cancer: a randomized study.

Context: Upper gastrointestinal cancer is associated with a poor prognosis. The multidimensional problems of incurable patients require close monitoring and frequent support, which cannot sufficiently be provided during conventional one to two month follow-up visits to the outpatient clinic.

Objectives: To compare nurse-led follow-up at home with conventional medical follow-up in the outpatient clinic for patients with incurable primary or recurrent esophageal, pancreatic, or hepatobiliary cancer.

A new fully covered stent with antimigration properties for the palliation of malignant dysphagia: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Fully covered stents are designed to resist tissue ingrowth that is often seen with partially covered stents. An issue with fully covered stents is the risk of migration.

Objective: We aimed to determine efficacy, recurrent dysphagia, and complications of the SX-ELLA stent Esophageal HV, which is fully covered to resist tissue ingrowth and has an antimigration ring to withstand migration.

A fully-covered stent (Alimaxx-E) for the palliation of malignant dysphagia: a prospective follow-up study.

Background: The majority of the currently available metal stents are partially covered to reduce migration risk. However, one of the remaining issues is tissue ingrowth through the uncovered stent parts.

Objective: To determine efficacy, recurrent dysphagia, and complications of a fully covered stent, ie, the Alimaxx-E stent, and to compare two stent delivery systems, ie, one introducing the stent over a guidewire and one introducing the stent over a small-caliber endoscope.

Cost comparison study of two different follow-up protocols after surgery for oesophageal cancer.

Background And Aim: Costs of follow-up strategies in patients after surgery for oesophageal cancer have not been evaluated. We therefore randomised 109 patients to standard outpatient clinic follow-up by a surgeon (n=55) or home visits by a specialist nurse (n=54) and compared costs between these two strategies.

Method: Cost comparisons included comprehensive data on hospital costs, diagnostic interventions and extramural care.

New design esophageal stents for the palliation of dysphagia from esophageal or gastric cardia cancer: a randomized trial.

Background & Aim: Stents are often used for the palliation of inoperable esophageal or gastric cardia cancer. One of the drawbacks of the currently used stents is the high percentage of recurrent dysphagia due to stent migration and tissue growth. New stents have been designed to overcome this unwanted sequela of stent placement.

Esophageal stents for malignant strictures close to the upper esophageal sphincter.

Background: Self-expanding stents are a well-accepted palliative treatment modality for strictures resulting from esophageal carcinoma. However, the use of stents close to the upper esophageal sphincter (UES) is considered to be limited by patient intolerance caused by pain and globus sensation and an increased risk of complications, particularly tracheoesophageal fistula formation and aspiration pneumonia.

Objective: Our purpose was to determine the efficacy and safety of stent placement in patients with a malignant obstruction close to the UES.

Effect of stent size on complications and recurrent dysphagia in patients with esophageal or gastric cardia cancer.

Background: Stents are commonly used for the palliation of dysphagia from esophageal or gastric cardia cancer. A major drawback of stents is the occurrence of recurrent dysphagia. Large-diameter stents were introduced for the prevention of migration but may be associated with more complications.

Nurses working in GI and endoscopic practice: a review.

Background: Over the last 10 years, nurses increasingly perform tasks and procedures that were previously performed by physicians.

Objective: In this review, we investigated what types of GI care and endoscopic procedures nurses presently perform and reviewed the available evidence regarding the benefits of these activities.

Design: Review of published articles on nurses' involvement in GI and endoscopic practice.

A new esophageal stent design (Niti-S stent) for the prevention of migration: a prospective study in 42 patients.

Background: Covered, rather than uncovered, metal stents are used for the palliation of dysphagia from esophageal cancer, but a major drawback is the risk of stent migration, which occurs in up to 20% of patients. To overcome this problem, a double-layered stent, the Niti-S stent (Taewong Medical, Seoul, Korea), has been developed. The Niti-S stent consists of an inner polyurethane layer to prevent tumor ingrowth and an outer uncovered nitinol wire tube to allow the mesh of the stent to embed itself in the esophageal wall.