Pandemic H1N1 influenza is projected to be unprecedented in its scope, causing acute critical illness among thousands of young otherwise healthy adults, who will need advanced life support. Rigorous, relevant, timely, and ethical clinical and health…
OBJECTIVE: To describe models used in successful clinical initiatives to improve the quality of palliative care in critical care settings. DATA SOURCES: We searched the MEDLINE database from inception to April 2010 for all English language articles…
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To present an overview of the recent findings in pathophysiology and management of epileptic seizures in patients with brain tumors. RECENT FINDINGS: Low-grade gliomas are the most epileptogenic brain tumors. Regarding…
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Nonadherence to treatment recommendations, especially when associated with transition to adult care providers, account, by some estimates, for most organ rejections and death in long-term pediatric survivors of solid organ…
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Abdominal x-rays are used diagnostically in the evaluation of children with constipation. However, their clinical utility has not been established. The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy of different methods in…
OBJECTIVE:: To report a case of postnatal, postoperative amiodarone-induced hypothyroidism in an infant with a congenital heart defect. DESIGN:: Case report and literature review. SETTING:: Pediatric intensive care unit at a freestanding tertiary…
Objective: To investigate critical care physicians' experiences and perspectives regarding follow-up meetings with parents after a child's death in the pediatric intensive care unit. Parents of children who die in the pediatric intensive care unit…
Patients with advanced cancer experience a complex web of problems, all of which interact. Specialist palliative care services have developed to meet these needs, but their effectiveness should be considered. We sought to determine whether specialist…
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review focuses on anticonvulsant treatments in patients with brain tumors and epilepsy, in consideration of the rapidly expanding spectrum of these agents. RECENT FINDINGS: Despite the fact that this clinical condition is…
Nut allergy is known to impact on the quality of life (QoL) and anxiety of both the allergic child and their parents, but little is known about how the management of food allergy is associated with these variables. To investigate the impact of nut…
The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Commission on Classification and Terminology has revised concepts, terminology, and approaches for classifying seizures and forms of epilepsy. Generalized and focal are redefined for seizures as…
AIM: To determine the prevalence and associations of self-reported and parent-reported pain in children with cerebral palsy (CP) of all severities., METHOD: Cross-sectional design using a questionnaire; analysis using ordinal regression. Children…
Purpose To describe the formation of a paediatric palliative care programme providing care in hospital, at home or in hospice, ensuring continuity of care where the child and family desire. Study design Descriptive analysis was performed on referral…
OBJECTIVE: To assess if family care givers of patients with lung cancer experience the patterns of social, psychological, and spiritual wellbeing and distress typical of the patient, from diagnosis to death. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of serial…
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The prevalence of religious faith among doctors and its relationship with decision-making in end-of-life care is not well documented. The impact of ethnic differences on this is also poorly understood. This study compares…
Social workers play an important role in the delivery of Hospice Palliative Care in many diverse settings. The profession brings a unique perspective to end-of-life care that reflects and supports the holistic philosophy of Hospice Palliative Care.…
To determine whether modern medicine is facilitating 'good' deaths, appropriate measures of the quality of dying and death must be developed and utilized. The purpose of this paper is to identify quality of dying and death measurement tools and to…
We assessed the sampling performance of research on parental perspectives in pediatric palliative care and examined if and how gender imbalance was treated. We undertook a systematic review of parental perspectives research in pediatric palliative…
Restructuring health care in Canada has emphasized the provision of ambulatory and home-based palliative care. Acquiring economic evidence is critical given this trend and its tremendous demands on family caregivers. The purposes of this study were:…
Spirituality and spiritual care are gaining increasing attention but their potential contribution to palliative care remains unclear. The aim of this study was to synthesize qualitative literature on spirituality and spiritual care at the end of life…
We studied the frequency and consequences of incidental neuroimaging findings in 400 otherwise healthy, nonacute pediatric headache patients through a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis. We excluded patients with currently recommended clinical…
Congenital muscular dystrophies are a group of rare neuromuscular disorders with a wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes. Recent advances in understanding the molecular pathogenesis of congenital muscular dystrophy have enabled better diagnosis.…
Compassion fatigue (CF) is recognizable. It erodes the professional's ability to function at an optimum level. Depression, caregiver stress, secondary trauma, and post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) are very much a part of the daily landscape for…
Adolescents have unique physical and psychosocial needs. Adolescents want to gain autonomy, yet they must still rely on their parents for support. These unique needs are further complicated by a life-threatening illness. Adolescents with…
With the emergence of a more formalized field of pediatric palliative care (PPC), it is important for individuals and organizations involved in PPC to gather input from patients with life-threatening/life-limiting conditions, their families, and…
INTRODUCTION: Delayed discussion of a patient's code status can lead to shortsighted care plans that increase hospital length of stay (LOS) and costs., METHODS: Retrospective study compared intensive care unit (ICU) patients who accepted verses…
Phenomenologic analysis of initial consults provided during the first year of a new Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) program provides essential understanding of the experience and inform program direction and future clinical research. Parents…
Although a growing number of projects have been implemented using the community-based participatory research method known as photovoice, no known systematic review of the literature on this approach has been conducted to date. This review draws on…
Pilot studies for phase III trials - which are comparative randomized trials designed to provide preliminary evidence on the clinical efficacy of a drug or intervention - are routinely performed in many clinical areas. Also commonly know as…
BACKGROUND: In 2004, a review of pilot studies published in seven major medical journals during 2000-01 recommended that the statistical analysis of such studies should be either mainly descriptive or focus on sample size estimation, while results…
BACKGROUND: Sampling in the absence of accurate or comprehensive information routinely poses logistical, ethical, and resource allocation challenges in social science, clinical, epidemiological, health service and population health research. These…
BACKGROUND: There is an increasing trend towards lower participation in questionnaire surveys. This reduces representativeness, increases costs and introduces particular challenges to longitudinal surveys, as researchers have to use complex…
BACKGROUND: Children with progressive metabolic, neurological, or chromosomal conditions and their families anticipate an unknown lifespan, endure unstable and often painful symptoms, and cope with erratic emotional and spiritual crises as the…
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Being a family carer to a patient nearing the end of their life is a challenging and confronting experience. Studies show that caregiving can have negative consequences on the health of family carers including fatigue, sleep…
ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: An aging population, rise in chronic illnesses, increase in life expectancy and shift towards care being provided at the community level are trends that are collectively creating an urgency to advance hospice palliative care…
