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The need for palliative care

Abstract:

World Health Organization defines palliative care as: active and total care of patients at the time his disease do not react to curative measures in order to control pain and other symptoms, together with his social and spiritual needs. Our mission as physicians is not always to cure; we must combine preventive, curative and palliative medicine in an integrated fashion to cover the terminal patient in its fearsome and lonely moments. In oncology, terminal disease is defined as: advanced, progressive and incurable disease without a reasonable response to specific treatment; accompanied by many changing symptoms carrying a strong emotional impact in the patient and his family, because of death proximity; added to less than 6 months prognosis of life. It is important to keep on sensitizing people for understanding patients have the right to relieve his pain, physical symptoms and appropriate attention for his spiritual needs.