Main regional center for pain relief and supportive/palliative care, La Maddalena Cancer center, Palermo, Italy
Department of supportive care, MD Anderson, Houston, Texas, USA.
BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2023 Dec;13(4):386-392. doi: 10.1136/spcare-2022-004088. Epub 2023 Jan 18.
Acute palliative care units (APCUs) are lacking in most cancer hospitals and even when palliative care units are present, they are predominantly based on a traditional hospice-like model for patients with short life expectancy. This scoping review examined the papers assessing the activities of APCU. Data from literature regarding APCU characteristics, activities and outcomes have shown important differences among different countries.In comparison with existing data on traditional hospices, APCU provided a whole range of palliative care interventions, from an early treatment of pain and symptoms at time diagnosis and during the oncological treatment, up to the advanced stage of disease when they may favour the transition to the best supportive care or palliative care only, also indicating the best palliative care service that may fits the clinical and social condition of individuals. Large differences in the characteristics of such units, including hospital stay and mortality, have been evidenced, in some cases resembling those of a traditional hospice. It likely that in some countries such units supply the lack of other palliative care services.Further studies on APCUs are needed, even on other outcome processes, to provide a more precise identification among the palliative care settings, which should not interchangeable, but complimentary to offer the full range of activities to be activated according to the different needs of the patients.
急性姑息治疗病房（APCUs）在大多数癌症医院都很缺乏，即使有姑息治疗病房，它们也主要基于传统的临终关怀模式，针对预期寿命较短的患者。本范围综述评估了评估 APCU 活动的论文。有关 APCU 特征、活动和结果的文献数据表明，不同国家之间存在重要差异。与传统临终关怀的现有数据相比，APCUs 提供了一系列姑息治疗干预措施，从诊断时和肿瘤治疗期间的早期疼痛和症状治疗，到疾病的晚期，它们可能有利于过渡到最佳支持治疗或仅姑息治疗，并指出可能适合个人临床和社会状况的最佳姑息治疗服务。已经证明，这些单位的特征存在很大差异，包括住院时间和死亡率，在某些情况下类似于传统临终关怀的特征。在某些国家，此类单位可能填补了其他姑息治疗服务的空白。需要对 APCUs 进行进一步研究，甚至对其他结果过程进行研究，以在姑息治疗环境中进行更准确的识别，这些环境不应相互替代，而是相辅相成，根据患者的不同需求提供全方位的活动。
