Evaluating Person-Centred Integrated Care to People with Complex Chronic Conditions: Early Implementation Results of the ProPCC Programme.

Introduction: The evaluation of integrated care programmes for older people is a challenge. We aim to share the early implementation results of the ProPCC programme in the North-Barcelona metropolitan area, in Catalonia, Spain.

Methods: We analysed the intervention with retrospective data from May 2018 to December 2021 by describing the cohort complexity and by showing its 6-months pre-post impact on time spent at home and resources used: primary care visits, emergency department visits, hospital admissions and hospital stay.

Blindness in a bladder cancer patient.

Blindness is an unusual symptom in the clinical course of cancer. When it appears it is necessary to differentiate between benign and malign causes. Brain metastases in bladder cancer are extremely rare.

[Validation of the Spanish version of the Palliative Care Outcome Scale].

Background And Objective: The objective of this study was to translate the Palliative Care Outcome Scale (POS) into Spanish and to validate it.

Material And Method: The translation and adaptation was based on the conceptual equivalence of the terms used. In order to study the psychometric properties, 200 patients receiving palliative care were asked to fill out the POS questionnaire, the European Organization for Research on Cancer Treatment Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORCT QLQ C-30), the Barthel Index and the Karnofsky Index on their first visit.

Home palliative care as a cost-saving alternative: evidence from Catalonia.

The aim of this study was to provide a comparative assessment of the health care resources consumed during the final month of life of patients undergoing palliative treatment and who died from cancer in the town of Mataró, Spain, in 1998, with respect to whether they benefited from home care teams or not. Relevant differences in the use of health care resources were found between the groups. Patients in the standard care group presented more hospital care admissions and longer length of stay, higher use of emergency and outpatient visits, and greater use of palliative care units within nursing homes than patients in the home care group.

[Cured brain abscess in a boy with congenital cyanotic cardiopathy].

We present a patient with severe tricuspid stenosis whom at the age of 13 developed a brain abscess successfully treated by surgical means.

Selective limbotomy.

A method is designed dividing the limbic system into sectors. The method was tested by analyzing 50 procedures carried out by the authors. Rostral limbotomies, performed either by open techniques (cingulectomy) or by stereotactic surgery, showed similar results, although recurrence was more frequent with stereotaxis.

Pain suppression by peripheral nerve stimulation. Chronic effects of implanted devices.

This is a study of the long range effects of pain suppression obtained by electrical stimulation of peripheral nerves. These cases were followed during 12--46 months and evaluated personally and by questionnaires. Selection for surgery was done exclusively on the basis of the results of a preoperative peripheral nerve stimulation test.

Pain suppression by peripheral nerve stimulation. Part II. Observations with implanted devices.

Twenty-three patients underwent implantation of a stimulator system and were followed for 6-20 months. Twenty patients estimated between 50% and 100% pain relief. The effect was largely consistent and reproducible.

Pain suppression by peripheral nerve stimulation. Part I. Observations with transcutaneous stimuli.

A systematic, strict appraisal was made of 100 patients, after preliminary clinical trials suggested that some patients with pain could be helped by peripheral nerve stimulation. Transcutaneous stimulation of different nerve trunks was done with a special electrical stimulation device with various selected electrical parameters. More than half of the patients experienced some relief; in many, this effect was obtained by stimulating nerves distant from the area of referred pain.