Home Telemonitoring Improved Pain Registration in Patients With Cancer.

Introduction: For adequate pain treatment in patients with cancer, it is important to monitor and evaluate pain regularly. Although the numeric rating scale (NRS) is implemented in hospitals in the Netherlands, pain is still not systematically registered during outpatient consultations. The aim of this study was to assess whether home telemonitoring increases pain registration in medical records of outpatients with cancer.

The efficacy of standard laxative use for the prevention and treatment of opioid induced constipation during oxycodone use: a small Dutch observational pilot study.

Background: Dutch clinical guidelines recommend that a standard laxative treatment (SLT) should be prescribed concomitantly when starting opioid treatment to prevent opioid-induced constipation (OIC).

Methods: Clinical evidence for SLT in the treatment of OIC is lacking, therefore an observational pilot study was performed to explore the efficacy and tolerability of SLT on OIC in patients treated with the opioid oxycodone.

Results: Twenty-four patients (58% female, median (range) age 65 (39-92)) were included in this pilot study.

Intrathecal administration of high-dose morphine solutions decreases the pH of cerebrospinal fluid.

Terminally ill patients suffering from intractable cancer pain are treated in our hospital on an outpatient basis with a percutaneous intrathecal (i.t.) catheter and a portable pump delivering morphine continuously.