Measuring progress to healing: A challenge and an opportunity

Complete healing is problematic as an endpoint for evaluating interventions for wound healing. The great heterogeneity of wounds makes it difficult to match groups, and this is only possible with multivariate stratification and/or very large numbers of subjects. The substantial time taken for wounds to heal necessitates a very lengthy study. Consequently, high quality randomised controlled trials demonstrating an effect of an intervention to a satisfactory level of statistical significance and with a satisfactory level of generalisability are extremely rare. This study determines that the healing of venous leg ulcers receiving multi‐component compression bandaging follows a linear trajectory over a 4‐week period, as measured by gross area healed, percentage area healed, and advance of the wound margin. The linear trajectories of these surrogates make it possible to identify an acceleration in healing resulting from an intervention, and allows self‐controlled or crossover designs with attendant advantages of statistical power and speed. Of the metrics investigated, wound margin advance was the most linear, and was also independent of initial ulcer size.     

End-of-Life Care for Seriously Ill International Patients at a Global Destination Medical Center

Objective

To characterize the end-of-life care of all international patients who died at a global destination medical center from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2015.

'Round-table' ethical debate: is a suicide note an authoritative 'living will'?

Living wills are often considered by physicians who are faced with a dying patient. Although popular with the general public, they remain problems of authenticity and authority. It is difficult for the examining physician to know whether the patient understood the terms of the advance directive when they signed it, and whether they still consider it authoritative at the time that it is produced. Also, there is little consensus on what spectrum of instruments constitutes a binding advance directive in real life. Does a ''suicide note'' constitute an authentic and authoritative ''living will''? Our panel of authorities considers this problem in a round-table discussion.     

Prevalence of use of advance directives,health care proxy,legal guardian,and living will in 512 patients hospitalized in a cardiac care unit/intensive care unit in 2 community hospitals

Introduction

The prevalence of use of any advance directives was 26% in 112 patients hospitalized in a cardiac care unit (CCU)/intensive care unit (ICU) in an academic medical center.

Material and methods

We investigated in 2 community hospitals the prevalence of use of advance directives (AD), health care proxy (HCP), legal guardian (LG), and living will (LW) in 512 patients hospitalized in a CCU/ ICU approached for AD and HCP.

Results

The use of AD was 22%, of HCP was 19%, of LG was 16%, and of LW was 5%.

Conclusions

The use of AD was 22%, of HCP was 19%, of LG was 16%, and of LW was 5% in patients hospitalized in a CCU/ICU. Educational programs on use of AD and of HCP need to be part of cardiovascular training programs and of cardiovascular continuing medical education.     

Advance care planning for cancer patients in primary care: a feasibility study

Background

Advance care planning is being promoted as a central component of end-of-life policies in many developed countries, but there is concern that professionals find its implementation challenging.

Aim

To assess the feasibility of implementing advance care planning in UK primary care.

Design of study

Mixed methods evaluation of a pilot educational intervention.

Setting

Four general practices in south-east Scotland.

Method

Interviews with 20 GPs and eight community nurses before and after a practice-based workshop; this was followed by telephone interviews with nine other GPs with a special interest in palliative care from across the UK.

Results

End-of-life care planning for patients typically starts as an urgent response to clear evidence of a short prognosis, and aims to achieve a ‘good death’. Findings suggest that there were multiple barriers to earlier planning: prognostic uncertainty; limited collaboration with secondary care; a desire to maintain hope; and resistance to any kind of ‘tick-box’ approach. Following the workshop, participants'' knowledge and skills were enhanced but there was little evidence of more proactive planning. GPs from other parts of the UK described confusion over terminology and were concerned about the difficulties of implementing inflexible, policy-driven care.

Conclusion

A clear divide was found between UK policy directives and delivery of end-of-life care in the community that educational interventions targeting primary care professionals are unlikely to address. Advance care planning has the potential to promote autonomy and shared decision making about end-of-life care, but this will require a significant shift in attitudes.     

Integration of a palliative care specialist in an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis clinic: Observations from one center

Palliative care specialists can aid in the care of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In this article, we describe our 1-year experience incorporating a palliative care specialist into the ALS multidisciplinary team. We describe our integration model, patient selection, and visit content. Of 500 total clinic patients, 74 (14.8%) were seen by the palliative care specialist in 1 year. Referral was most often triggered by advance care planning needs (91%). In the initial visit with the palliative care specialist, topics most frequently covered included goals of care (84%), anxiety/depression (35%), and medical decision-making about feeding tubes (27%) or tracheostomy (31%). Symptom management comprised a relatively small number of the visits, and duration of visits was limited by patient fatigue. Patients with complex goals of care may benefit from the input of a palliative care specialist, and unique integration models may help to facilitate care delivery. Muscle Nerve 60 : 137–140, 2019     

Psychiatric Advance Directives and their relevance to improving psychiatric care in Asian countries

People with mental illness may be unable to provide critical input about the care they wish to receive during a psychiatric crisis because of altered mental states. It is therefore imperative that clinicians seek to understand service users' wishes for care while they are well and able to provide meaningful input into the discussion. Achieving such an end may be done by discussing and completing a psychiatric advance directive. However, very few Asian countries have legislation that supports such advance directives. The present article seeks to give physicians more information about advance psychiatric directives and the potential role they could play to improve the healthcare provided in Asia to people at risk of losing capacity due to a mental illness. The degree to which mental health legislation supports psychiatric advance directives is documented for each country of South East Asia and Eastern Asia.     

过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体γ在脓毒症中的研究进展

背景 现已证实脓毒症是由感染因素诱发的全身性炎症反应综合征,在病程中表现为机体和病原体相互作用导致的促炎和抗炎反应不平衡. 目的 过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体-γ(peroxisome proliferator activated receptor-γ,PPAR-γ)作为一种配体激活的核受体转录因子,与配体结合后作用于炎性信号转录途径的多个环节,抑制炎症反应,进而对脓毒症有一定的保护作用.因此,了解PPAR-γ在脓毒症中的研究现状以及未来发展趋势是十分必要的. 内容 PPAR-γ在缓和自身免疫性疾病、抗炎、抑制超敏反应、抗肿瘤及移植排斥中发挥重要的作用.针对PPAR-γ在脓毒症发病机制及治疗的研究作一综述. 趋向 PPAR-γ已成为炎症研究的方向,由于PPAR-γ结构与功能的复杂性,其作用机制尚未完全清楚,但随着对PPAR-γ研究的深入,有望为临床提供新的治疗方案.