Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care?
Cancer patients are frequently admitted to hospital due to acute conditions or refractory symptoms. This occurs through the emergency departments and requires medical oncologists to take an active role. The use of acute-care hospital increases in the last months of life.We aimed to describe the admi...
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doaj-a43594bf0b8d407faf61a04ac320096b2020-11-25T00:50:48ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01103e012082710.1371/journal.pone.0120827Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care?Gianmauro NumicoAntonella CristofanoAlessandro MozzicafreddoOlga Elisabetta CursioPierfrancesco FrancoGiulia CourthodAntonio TroguAlessandra MalossiMariella CucchiZuzana SirotovàMaria Rosa AlvaroAnna StellaFulvia GrassoSilvia SpinazzéNicola SilvestrisCancer patients are frequently admitted to hospital due to acute conditions or refractory symptoms. This occurs through the emergency departments and requires medical oncologists to take an active role. The use of acute-care hospital increases in the last months of life.We aimed to describe the admissions to a medical oncology inpatient service within a 16-month period with respect to patients and tumor characteristics, and the outcome of the hospital stay.672 admissions of 454 patients were analysed. The majority of admissions were urgent (74.1%), and were due to uncontrolled symptoms (79.6%). Among the chief complaints, dyspnoea occurred in 15.7%, pain in 15.2%, and neurological symptoms in 14.5%. The majority of the hospitalizations resulted in discharge to home (60.6%); in 26.5% the patient died and in 11.0% was transferred to a hospice. Admissions due to symptoms correlated with a longer hospital stay and a higher incidence of in-hospital death.We suggest that hospital use is not necessarily a sign of inappropriately aggressive care: inpatient care is probably an unavoidable step in the cancer trajectory. Optimization of inpatient supportive procedures should be a specific task of modern medical oncology.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4374858?pdf=render |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Gianmauro Numico Antonella Cristofano Alessandro Mozzicafreddo Olga Elisabetta Cursio Pierfrancesco Franco Giulia Courthod Antonio Trogu Alessandra Malossi Mariella Cucchi Zuzana Sirotovà Maria Rosa Alvaro Anna Stella Fulvia Grasso Silvia Spinazzé Nicola Silvestris |
spellingShingle |
Gianmauro Numico Antonella Cristofano Alessandro Mozzicafreddo Olga Elisabetta Cursio Pierfrancesco Franco Giulia Courthod Antonio Trogu Alessandra Malossi Mariella Cucchi Zuzana Sirotovà Maria Rosa Alvaro Anna Stella Fulvia Grasso Silvia Spinazzé Nicola Silvestris Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care? PLoS ONE |
author_facet |
Gianmauro Numico Antonella Cristofano Alessandro Mozzicafreddo Olga Elisabetta Cursio Pierfrancesco Franco Giulia Courthod Antonio Trogu Alessandra Malossi Mariella Cucchi Zuzana Sirotovà Maria Rosa Alvaro Anna Stella Fulvia Grasso Silvia Spinazzé Nicola Silvestris |
author_sort |
Gianmauro Numico |
title |
Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care? |
title_short |
Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care? |
title_full |
Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care? |
title_fullStr |
Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care? |
title_sort |
hospital admission of cancer patients: avoidable practice or necessary care? |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
series |
PLoS ONE |
issn |
1932-6203 |
publishDate |
2015-01-01 |
description |
Cancer patients are frequently admitted to hospital due to acute conditions or refractory symptoms. This occurs through the emergency departments and requires medical oncologists to take an active role. The use of acute-care hospital increases in the last months of life.We aimed to describe the admissions to a medical oncology inpatient service within a 16-month period with respect to patients and tumor characteristics, and the outcome of the hospital stay.672 admissions of 454 patients were analysed. The majority of admissions were urgent (74.1%), and were due to uncontrolled symptoms (79.6%). Among the chief complaints, dyspnoea occurred in 15.7%, pain in 15.2%, and neurological symptoms in 14.5%. The majority of the hospitalizations resulted in discharge to home (60.6%); in 26.5% the patient died and in 11.0% was transferred to a hospice. Admissions due to symptoms correlated with a longer hospital stay and a higher incidence of in-hospital death.We suggest that hospital use is not necessarily a sign of inappropriately aggressive care: inpatient care is probably an unavoidable step in the cancer trajectory. Optimization of inpatient supportive procedures should be a specific task of modern medical oncology. |
url |
http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4374858?pdf=render |
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