Palliative surgery in the do-not-resuscitate patient: ethics and practical suggestions for management.

Palliative care in the United States has made tremendous strides in the last decade. One of the most perplexing issues arises when a palliative care patient presents to the operating room with an already existing do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order. This article describes the most common conflicting issues that may arise and provides guidance to surgeons, anesthesiologists, patients, and their primary physicians to reach satisfactory resolution and optimal care.

Expert knowledge in palliative care on the World Wide Web: palliativedrugs.org.

In my last Internet-related article, I speculated that social networking would be the coming wave in the effort to share knowledge among experts in various disciplines. At the time I did not know that a palliative care site on the World Wide Web (WWW), palliativedrugs.com, already provided the infrastructure for sharing expert knowledge in the field.

Living in the electronic age: musings on nearly two decades in Cyberspace.

My journey through Cyberspace began about 20 years ago with an introduction to e-mail. A few years later, I had the good fortune of working with artificial intelligence engineers who were developing information retrieval techniques and expert systems. By serendipity this led to an early introduction to the World Wide Web (www) and the use of Web browsers as tools for gathering information, long before the Internet became commercialized.

Pain management in palliative care oncology patients.

Palliative care is an interdisciplinary approach to relieving aversive symptoms in people with life-threatening illnesses; it aims to improve the lives of patients and their loved ones, the "patient-family unit." Palliative care should occur in parallel with all other medical interventions. Indeed, good symptom management is important in helping patients cope with the unpleasantness associated with potentially curative or life-prolonging interventions; it is absolutely essential near the end of life.