Competencies for quality spiritual care in palliative care in Latin America: from the Spirituality Commission of the Latin American Association for Palliative Care.

Spiritual care is an essential part of quality palliative care. However, the literature regarding spiritual care competencies in Latin America is limited. Herein we propose the basic quality standards for spiritual care in palliative care according to best professional practices and provide a common vocabulary and required competencies for quality clinical spiritual care.

Opioids prescription for symptoms relief and the impact on respiratory function: updated evidence.

Purpose Of Review: Opioids are used for treating dyspnea and other symptoms in oncological and nononcological patients. The relief of respiratory fatigue and anxiety that these opioids offer is well known. One of the scarcely frequent, but very much feared, side-effects is respiratory depression.

A systematic review of the influence of opioids on advanced cancer patient survival.

Purpose Of Review: Many health professionals still believe that opioids shorten the lifespan of patients. This situation implies that the ethical doctrine of double effect is often invoked to justify their use in extreme circumstances. The objective of this study is to revise the evidence existing in the recently published literature regarding the effect on patient survival of opioid used to control disease symptoms.

An update on the importance of monitoring serum magnesium in advanced disease patients.

Purpose Of Review: Patients with advanced diseases are exposed to many causes of hypomagnesaemia, the most frequent being pharmacological causes through the administration of chemotherapy, antibiotics, proton pump inhibitors, and so on. The objective of this review is to demonstrate the importance of measuring magnesium levels in the blood of these patients.

Recent Findings: In the last decade, studies have been published showing a direct relationship between low levels of magnesium and nonspecific symptoms including pain that is difficult to control.

Hypomagnesemia as a possible explanation behind episodes of severe pain in cancer patients receiving palliative care.

Within an oncology setting, certain chemotherapy drugs, such as cisplatin, may lead to magnesium loss causing nephropathy. Neurological and cardiovascular symptoms caused by hypomagnesaemia are well known. The relationship between serious hypomagnesemia and severe pain is not well documented but nevertheless, when faced with unexplained episodes of pain which do not respond to powerful analgesics, it is important to review blood magnesium levels.