Practicing Primary Palliative Care An Issue Of Surgical Clinics

This issue of Surgical Clinics of North America focuses on Practicing Primary Palliative Care and is edited by Dr. Pringl Miller. Articles will include: Advantages of a Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Surgical Care; Concurrent Palliative Care has Clinical Outcome Benefits; Goals of Care Discussions - Understanding the Outcomes that Matter Most; Prognostic Tools and Shared Decision Making; Peri-Operative Advance Directives - DNR in the OR; Optimizing Pain Control During the Opioid Epidemic; Wound and Stoma Care - Less is More; Image-Guided Palliative Interventions; Palliative Care and the Pregnant Surgical Patient; Tracheostomies, PEGs, and Hemodialysis Vascular Access - When Are They Really Indicated?; Post-Operative Recovery & Survivorship after Acute Hospitalization for Serious Life Limiting Illness; Spiritual Dimensions of Surgical Palliative Care; Transitioning to Comfort-Focused Care at the End-of-Life; Mitigating Burnout; Surgical Palliative Care Education; and more!

This issue of Surgical Clinics of North America focuses on Practicing Primary Palliative Care and is edited by Dr. Pringl Miller. Articles will include: Advantages of a Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Surgical Care; Concurrent Palliative Care has Clinical Outcome Benefits; Goals of Care Discussions - Understanding the Outcomes that Matter Most; Prognostic Tools and Shared Decision Making; Peri-Operative Advance Directives - DNR in the OR; Optimizing Pain Control During the Opioid Epidemic; Wound and Stoma Care - Less is More; Image-Guided Palliative Interventions; Palliative Care and the Pregnant Surgical Patient; Tracheostomies, PEGs, and Hemodialysis Vascular Access - When Are They Really Indicated?; Post-Operative Recovery & Survivorship after Acute Hospitalization for Serious Life Limiting Illness; Spiritual Dimensions of Surgical Palliative Care; Transitioning to Comfort-Focused Care at the End-of-Life; Mitigating Burnout; Surgical Palliative Care Education; and more!

This issue of Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice, guest edited by Drs. Alan R. Roth, Peter A. Selwyn, and Serife Eti, is devoted to Palliative Care. Articles in this important issue include: Introduction to Hospice and Palliative Care; Hospice for the Primary Care Physician; Pain Assessment and Management; Non-Pain Symptom Management; Communication Skills: Delivering Bad News, Conducting a Goals of Care Family Meeting, and Advance Care Planning; Psychosocial Issues and Bereavement; Ethical and Legal Considerations in End of Life Care; Cultural, Religious, and Spiritual Issues in Palliative Care; Palliative Care Approach to Chronic Diseases (CHF/COPD/ESLD/ESRD); Palliative Care in HIV/AIDS; Palliative Care in the Elderly (Dementia, Neurodegenerative Disorders, Functional Decline/Frailty); and Pediatric Palliative Care.

Palliative care focuses on reducing the severity of disease symptoms in order to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve the quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness. Primary care providers are often the coordinators of palliative care and need to be well versed in all aspects of providing palliative care. This issue covers important topics in palliative care, such as prognosis, management of several end-stage diseases, and management of severe symptoms. The issue could be helpful to a physician studying for subspecialty certification in hospice and palliative medicine.

Palliative care has become increasingly important across the spectrum of healthcare, and with it, the need for education and training of a broad range of medical practitioners not previously associated with this field of care. Part of the Integrating Palliative Care series, this volume on surgical palliative care guides readers through the core palliative skills and knowledge needed to deliver high value care for patients with life-limiting, critical, and terminal illness under surgical care. Chapters explore the historical, philosophical, and spiritual principles of surgical palliative care, and follow the progression of the seriously ill surgical patient's journey from the pre-operative encounter, to the invasive procedure, to the post-operative setting, and on to survivorship. An overview of the future of surgical palliative care education and research rounds out the text. Surgical Palliative Care is an ideal resource for surgeons, surgical nurses, intensivists, and other practitioners who wish to learn more about integrating palliative care into the surgical field.

This issue of Surgical Oncology Clinics, guest edited by Dr. Bridget N. Fahy, is devoted to Palliative Care in Surgical Oncology. Dr. Fahy has assembled expert authors to review the following topics: Current guidelines for integration of palliative care in oncology; Management of malignant bowel obstruction; Management of peritoneal carcinomatosis & malignant ascites; Artificial nutrition in patients with advanced malignancy; Selecting patients for palliative procedures in oncology; Palliative radiotherapy: Indications and outcomes; Ethical considerations for caring for patients with advanced cancer; Evaluation and management of malignant biliary obstruction; Systemic anti-cancer treatments for advanced cancer patients: What a surgical oncologist needs to know; Role of palliative medicine training in surgical oncology; Navigating difficult conversations: Breaking bad news and exploring goals of care in surgical patients; Strategies for optimizing perioperative pain management for the cancer patient; and more!

This issue of Anesthesiology Clinics brings the reader up to date on the most important advances in surgical palliative care for anesthesiology intensivists. Topics covered include recent trends and developments, palliative care of patients on high doses of narcotics, trauma in the surgical ICU, care of family in the surgical ICU, communication skills in palliative surgery, surgical palliative care in Haiti, and much more.

This issue of Surgical Clinics of North America focuses on Surgical Management of Endocrine Disease and is edited by Drs. Rebecca S. Sippel and David F. Schneider. Articles will include: Evaluation of Thyroid Nodules; Decision Making in Indeterminate Thyroid Nodules and the Role of Molecular Testing; Extent of Thyroidectomy for Thyroid Cancer; Management of Nodal Disease in Thyroid Cancer; The Role of Surgery in Inflammatory Conditions of the Thyroid; Diagnosis and Evaluation of Primary Hyperparathyroidism; Who Benefits from Treatment of Primary Hyperparathyroidism?; Intra-operative Decision Making in Parathyroid Surgery; Surgical Management of MEN-1 and MEN-2; The Importance of Family History in the Management of Endocrine Disease; Evaluation of an Adrenal Incidentaloma; Evaluation and Management of Primary Hyperaldosteronism; When to Intervene for Subclinical Cushing’s Syndrome; Adrenocortical Cancer Treatment; Surgical Approaches to the Adrenal Gland; Evaluation and Management of Neuroendocrine Tumors of the Pancreas; and more!