Advances in Palliative Medicine 2010, tom 9, nr 2

Dear Readers, In this edition of Advances, we present articles on different aspects of common symptom management and rare clinical situations. I would like to draw your particular attention to the review by Zylicz and Mercadante. Authors have challenged us with the statement that “despite a more than ten-fold increase in opioid consumption in the past decades, many cancer patients still suffer pain”...

Despite a more than tenfold increase in opioid consumption in the past decades, many cancer patients still suffer pain. The current understanding of this situation is poorly understood. It is still possible that in some countries pain is still undertreated, but it is also possible that we do not appreciate opioid induced toxicity and other phenomena an/or our opioid prescribing needs to be refreshed...

Transdermal buprenorphine is a new formulation of the old drug available for the treatment of cancer and non-cancer pain. The drug offers number of interesting new features and was found effective in clinical trials in cancer patients with pain. We performed a survey of the use of buprenorphine patches for one year...

Constipation is a common symptom in patients with advanced cancer and if left untreated it could greatly reduce a patient’s quality of life. There are many potential causes of constipation for a patient with advanced cancer...

Neuromuscular diseases involving respiratory muscles often requires tracheostomy for their airway management this entails ventilation and lung expansion techniques. Physiotherapy plays a vital role in managing these patients for weaning from ventilators, improving lung expansion and airway clearance...

Hyperplastic lesions of oral cavity and throat, despite being relatively accessible in the objective examination, are often discovered accidentally, at the level of considerable clinical advances. The majority of hyperplastic lesions in this area has its source in palatal tonsils, and mostly applies to smokers or people abusing alcohol...

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is not a well-known condition and often remains undiagnosed. Causal treatment does not exist, but there are numerous symptoms requiring symptomatic therapy. One of these, a particularly nagging one, is chronic pain...