RT Journal Article
T1 End of life in patients under the care of paediatric palliative care teams. Multicentre observational study
A1 Pelaez Cantero, Maria Jose
A1 Morales Asencio, Jose Miguel
A1 Navarro Marchena, Lucia
A1 Velazquez Gonzalez, Maria del Rosario
A1 Sanchez Echaniz, Jesus
A1 Rubio Ortega, Laura
A1 Martino Alba, Ricardo
K1 End of life
K1 Mortality
K1 Palliative care
K1 Paediatrics
K1 Children
K1 Symptoms
K1 Cancer
K1 Death
K1 Experiences
K1 Parents
K1 Home
K1 Perspectives
K1 Services
K1 Place
AB Introduction: Around 2000 children and adolescents die each year in Spain, however, we know little about the particularities of deaths in paediatrics. The purpose of this study is to document the characteristics of patients who die in the care of paediatric palliative care teams in Spain.Patients and methods: Retrospective, descriptive, multicentre study. Fourteen teams from all over the country participated.Results: Data were obtained from 164 patients. In most cases the underlying disease stemmed from oncological, neurological or neuromuscular processes. The median age at death was 6.9 years (RIC 11.2). The median follow-up time by the team was 0.3 years (RIC 0.8 years). The most frequent symptoms in the last week of life were dyspnoea, pain, increased secretions and sleep disorders. The median number of drugs administered to each patient one week prior to death was 6 (RIC 4). The place of death for 95 of the patients (57.9%) was hospital while 67 (40.9%) died at home.Conclusions: There was a wide age range of patients and they had substantial exposure to polypharmacy. The follow-up time shows that patients have late access to palliative care programmes. An effort should be made to introduce this care earlier rather than relegating it to the end of life. In Spain there is an unequal distribution of resources and not all teams can provide care at home. The place of death should be interpreted with caution. (c) 2021 Asociacion Espanola de Pediatria. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
PB Ediciones doyma s a
SN 1695-4033
YR 2022
FD 2022-05-14
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10668/24504
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10668/24504
LA es
DS RISalud
RD Apr 19, 2025