Cancer pain management: long-term maintenance therapy.

This is a case report regarding a patient on maintenance therapy with methadone wth cancer pain. Minimal increase in methadone dose and a better modulation of administration intervals were effective, allowing the achievement of an optimal analgesia in a short time. This effect was maintained at home after discharge up the last follow-up 3 weeks after discharge.

High-flow nasal OXYGEN therapy.

Objective: To report data of the use of high-flow nasal therapy (HFNT) in the palliative care setting.

Methods: Five hypoxaemic patients were treated by HFNT in a 1-year period in a palliative care setting, either in the last days of life or as part of an intensive treatment for a reversible cause of hypoxic dyspnoea.

Results: Four patients had a similar clinical pattern.

When the game is hard, more complex weapons are needed.

Objectives: The aim of this paper is to illustrate how to manage a very difficult pain condition.

Methods: This is a clinical note of a complex approach using multiple analgesic regimens to effectively afford challenging pain situations.

Results: A man underwent an opioid dose titration, followed by dose stabilisation for some months.

Pattern and characteristics of patients admitted to a hospice connected with an acute palliative care unit in a comprehensive cancer center.

Purpose: Information about inpatient hospice activity is limited. No data exist about the pattern and the characteristics of advanced cancer patients admitted to a hospice connected to an acute supportive/palliative care unit (ASPCU).

Methods: Data of hospice admissions were retrieved from the database where all data were prospectively collected.

High flow nasal therapy in the management of hypoxemic dyspnea at the end of life.

Refractory dyspnea is challenging for physicians treating patients near to the end of life. High-flow nasal therapy (HFNT). We report a case in which HFNS was effective in a patient in the last days of life to mitigate dyspnea allowing a minimal quality of life for some days before dying.

Palliative Care in the Time of COVID-19.

After COVID-19 crisis in Italy, serious restrictions have been introduced for relatives, with limitations or prohibitions on hospital visits. To partially overcome these issues "WhatsApp" has been adopted to get family members to participate in clinical rounds. Family members of patients admitted to the acute palliative care unit and hospice were screened for a period of two weeks.