How should we measure emesis in palliative care?

There are many assessment tools available to measure emesis. This Association for Palliative Medicine Science Committee Task Group undertook a review of the validity and suitability of the assessment tools available to measure nausea, vomiting and retching within a palliative care population. Electronic databases were searched from 1970 to 2004.

Views of oncology patients, their relatives and oncologists on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR): questionnaire-based study.

Background: Doctors are justified withholding a treatment, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), if it is unlikely to benefit a patient. The success rates for CPR in patients with cancer is <1%. Guidelines produced in 2001 recommended that CPR should be discussed with patients, even when it is unlikely to be successful.

Survey of assessment criteria prior to implantation of spinal cord stimulators in United Kingdom pain management centres.

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a useful option in selected patients with chronic neuropathic pain. The aim of this questionnaire-based survey was to determine what assessment methods are used for patients being considered for SCS in pain management centres in the United Kingdom. This was in relation to the recommendations produced by the Task Force of the European Federation of IASP chapters (1998) on neuromodulation.

Audit of referrals to a hospital palliative care team: role of the bilingual health-care worker.

There is much interest in whether the needs of ethnic minority patients are being met by palliative care services. Bradford has a population that includes people from several different ethnic minorities, the largest number of whom originate from Pakistan. In May 2000 a bilingual health-care worker (BHCW) was appointed to work with the local palliative care teams to improve service provision for patients from South Asia.