How to Support Patients Near the End of Life Whose Pain Is Best Treated With Surgery?

For seriously ill patients whose pain is best treated with surgery, it is important to discuss and explore treatment goals preoperatively. Knowing which health states a patient would tolerate helps the surgeon identify interventions that are overly burdensome, overreach survival goals, or undermine the patient's quality of life. Surgical success should be defined by how well an intervention aligns with patients' goals. Early integration of specialty palliative care can help identify surgical patients with unmet needs, optimize symptom management, clarify preferences, and improve end-of-life care.