[Therapy of high-intensity cancer pain]
SIMKÓ Csaba
JUNE 20, 2003
Lege Artis Medicinae - 2003;13(05)
SIMKÓ Csaba
JUNE 20, 2003
Lege Artis Medicinae - 2003;13(05)
[Although cancer pain is usually a chronic one, in certain cases it needs emergency treatment due to its intensity. By the temporal appearance of pain the author discusses separately the possibilities of treatment of the continuous and the episodic (breakthrough) pain and refers particularly to the neuropathic pain. It is stressed that opiate-responsive continuous severe pain can be diminished most quickly by giving morphine intravenously and a recommendation is drafted how to perform it rapidly but safely. Finally, it is emphasized that the absence of pain analysis and appropriate drug therapy is the most important factor of inadequate pain relief up to now.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[Recently, physicians and medical literature are more concerned about end-of-life care. A review is given of studies dealing with the rights of the dying patient, with advance directives and with possible treatments in the last days of life. A survey was done in author's department on medical therapy of the terminal period of 103 inpatients, died between 01. 10. 2001. and 31. 03. 2002. Comparing these data with those of American, Finnish etc. authors, the treatments seem to be more generous - probably because in Hungary it is not (yet?) usual to ”declare” endof- life care and to withdraw active therapy. However, indication of antibiotics seems to be more clinical (28.1%, vs. 42%-88% given by similar foreign data). Antibiotics are not palliative means, however, they may be administered in the last days, if the patient is suffering from a terminal infection. Indications and choice of antibiotics are suggested in these cases; medical and ethical problems discussed. Physicians can relieve the physical and mental distressing symptoms of the dying patient and ensure human dignity and peace of the last days.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[Radiotherapy - as a part of complex, multidisciplinary therapy - indicated in 70% of patients with malignant tumors during the natural course of the disease. Unfortunately, around 40-50% of patients can not be cured due to the advanced stage, recurrence or dissemination of the disease. In such cases radiotherapy with palliative intention can be used to resolve symptoms, decrease tumor burden and increase the quality of life for the patient. Urgent radiotherapy can overcome special symptoms causing acute life-threatening conditions. The author reviews the main indications, radiotherapy techniques, dose-fractionation schedules and treatment results of palliative and urgent radiotherapy used in the daily clinical practice.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[Nausea and vomiting are very frequent problems in terminally ill cancer patients, with many causes in the background. Repeated vomiting considerably affects patients' quality of life and may also cause numerous complications requiring hospitalization. In palliative care these symptoms need to be alleviated knowing that triggering causes persist. To provide effective symptom control we need to understand the triggering mechanism of vomiting as well as to have a deep knowledge of most important antiemetics and to give efficient drugs regularly.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[Palliative chemotherapy, as defined, a cytotoxic treatment where the expected result is not sufficient enough to cure the patient but it could relieve the cancer related symptoms. In other words, it is such a treatment where the chance of symptomatic improvement means an overall advantage to the patient compared to the possible disadvantages of toxicity. In the 70s and 80s, only the objective response rate, relapse free interval, and overall survival rates were selected as endpoints when the activity of anticancer agents were investigated. In these studies it was observed that a considerable amount of patient showed significant symptomatic improvement even though the treatment was ineffective according to the measured endpoints. Today, the measurement of quality of life is one of the standard endpoint of such studies. Moreover, quality of life is considered as the most important independent factor when palliative chemotherapy is initiated. It should be noted that remission is not the only and final benefit of chemotherapy. The role and options of palliative chemotherapy in certain tumors are discussed.]
Lege Artis Medicinae
Clinical Neuroscience
[Objective - In our case report we present the treatment of a female patient suffering from therapy resistant depression. This procedure is not in practice in Hungary at present, the aim of our work to reproduce the findigs of international studies in domestic circumstances. Matter - Major depression is a common, chronic and severe mental disorder, with 16.2% lifetime prevalence. Many international randomized, placebo controlled trials found administration of ketamine infusion effective in depressed patients. Methods - Since ketamine is an anesthetic agent, its administration was performed in the post-operative monitoring room of our hospital operating-room, supervised by an anesthesiologist. According to formerly published data, a dose of 0.5 mg/kg of body weight was administered intravenously in 40 minutes by perfusor. The drug was administered in a same manner fifteen days later. Subject - The patient was admitted to our inpatient ward with severe depression. During two months of combined antidepressant therapy her condition has not improved significantly. Approval for off label drug indication was granted with urgency by the National Institute of Quality and Organizational Development in Healthcare and Medicines. Results - During the two treatments the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale 21 items rating scale score was reduced to 8 from the baseline 28, the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale score was reduced to 6 from 25, Beck Depression Inventory was reduced to 9 from 20. Upon administration of the drug no severe adverse event was detected, the mild dissociative state related to ketamine was ceased in a short period of time. Discussion - With administration of 0.5 mg/kg ketamine the authors managed to achieve rapid improvement in a therapy resistant depressed patient, without permanent side effects. Our future plan is to repeat the use of the drug within a double-blind, placebo controlled trial in order to prove its efficacy in hospital settings. ]
Lege Artis Medicinae
[The use of opioids to relieve strong, unbearable pain is a method that has been known for thousands of years and is still effective today. In contrast to the earlier view, opioids today are not only given to cancer patients. The application area of morphine derivatives is generally the relief of exceptionally strong pain regardless of the diagnosis, but opiates are undoubtedly most commonly used to treat cancer-related or strong acute pain. Strong pain reducers are used much more in developed countries for the treatment of non-cancer related severe pain refractory to other approaches. Today the use of opiates and their derivatives (fentanyl, oxycodon) for non-cancer related pain relief is recognized by the national health insurance in that it allows general practitioners to prescribe them, upon the recommendation of a neurosurgeon, orthopaedic surgeon, traumatologist or rheumatologist, with a significant 90% subsidy for six months to ensure easy access for patients in severe, refractory pain due to degenerative musculoskelatal diseases (ICD: M47, M48, M16.9, M17.9, M54.4, M51.0, M51.1). The indications of opioid use, however, are not limited to strong nociceptive pain since they are also effective in certain types of peripheral neuropathic pain. In brief, a basic principle of the use of major analgetics is that their indication is primarily based on the intensity of pain and not on the nature of the disease, even though the latter has a major influence on the clinician's strategy of pain relief.]
Clinical Neuroscience
[Ketamine is a widely used drug in pediatric anesthesia practice, acting primarily through the blockade of the Nmethyl- D-aspartate (NMDA) type of glutamate receptors. A growing body of laboratory evidence, accumulated during the past few years, suggests that this drug could have potential adverse effects on the developing central nervous system. The goal of this short review is to give a brief synopsis of experimental work indicating ketamine-induced developmental neurotoxicity as well as to discuss potential limitations concerning extrapolation of these studies to clinical practice.]
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