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Palliative and End-of-Life Care

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Learning Geriatric Medicine

Part of the book series: Practical Issues in Geriatrics ((PIG))

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Abstract

The principal goal of palliative care is to alleviate suffering in patients with serious non-curable disorders and help their relatives during the last days of life.

Palliative care is a team approach, and comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) is the best basis to decide if the old and multimorbid patient meets the indications for palliative care, to find treatment targets and to meet his/her and their relatives’ needs.

Common symptoms like pain, nausea, dyspnoea, delirium and restlessness should be systematically assessed and monitored. Close communication with patients and relatives and advance care planning improve quality of care.

Good nursing care is a cornerstone of palliative care and should be practised in close collaboration with the physician.

In end-of-life care, nutrition, i.v. fluids and drugs not effective in symptom control should be discontinued. Four drugs that can be given subcutaneously can reduce most symptoms in end-of-life care.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen and Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway

    Annette Hylen Ranhoff

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  1. Annette Hylen Ranhoff
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Correspondence to Annette Hylen Ranhoff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Regina Roller-Wirnsberger

  2. Institute for Biomedicine of Ageing Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Katrin Singler

  3. Ageing Clinical Research Department Medicine II, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Maria Cristina Polidori

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Ranhoff, A.H. (2018). Palliative and End-of-Life Care. In: Roller-Wirnsberger, R., Singler, K., Polidori, M. (eds) Learning Geriatric Medicine. Practical Issues in Geriatrics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61997-2_33

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-61997-2_33

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-61996-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-61997-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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