Palliative care out patient consultation service in a teaching hospital in Bangladesh.

Palliative care is a newly emerging subspecialty in Bangladesh. The aims of this study were i) to determine the characteristics, types of referral, disease pattern and insight about the disease and ii) to estimate the prevalence of pain and other common symptoms in a population of patients with advanced incurable state of cancer and attending the newly established palliative care out patient clinic. The data were collected at the outpatient clinic during first consultation using a modified structured data collection sheet from the Institute of Palliative Medicine (IPM) in Calicut, Keralla, India. Two hundred and three patients with mean age 50 years, diagnosed as suffering from incurable cancer were seen during a period of 21 months from October 2007 to June 2009. Most of the patients were from less privileged socioeconomic group (86%), stays with family (99%), already know about their disease status and prognosis (62%). Referred from other disciplines formed the major group (72%) of this population. All of them had been under treatment for variable period ranging from one month to four years. The most common five symptoms noted by the service providers were pain (89%), loss of appetite (61%), sleeplessness (55%), lack of energy (47%) and constipation (44%). Population based studies are required to determine the actual magnitude of sufferers and suffering in spite of the availability of global knowledge and skill to reduce these sufferings of the incurably ill members of the society.