Hayter C R, Mackillop W J
Radiation Oncology Research Unit, Queen's University, Kingston General Hospital, Ont.
Cancer Prev Control. 1997 Jun;1(2):116-21.
Although the care of inpatients is an important aspect of radiation oncology practice in many countries, it has never been studied in detail. The goal of this study was to describe the admissions to a radiation oncology inpatient service over a 1-year period with respect to patient characteristics, primary malignancies, common nonmalignant diagnoses, use of radiotherapy and outcome of admission.
Using computerized hospital databases, we analysed the utilization of 11 radiation oncology beds in a 424-bed teaching hospital from March 31, 1991, to April 1, 1992.
There were 342 admissions of 277 patients. The median age was 66.5 years; the male:female ratio was 1:1. The commonest primary neoplastic diagnoses were lung (42%), gynecological (15%), genitourinary (14%) and breast (8%) cancers. Only 17% of the patients had cancer as the sole diagnosis; most patients had multiple medical diagnoses. Infections (22%), neurological (20%), cardiovascular (13%) and endocrine (9%) conditions were the commonest. Mean length of stay was 11.25 days. Most of the admissions (71%) resulted in discharge to the patient's home; few patients (15%) died. Only half of admissions involved radiotherapy, indicating that the focus of patient care was the medical treatment of cancer complications or other active medical problems.
These data show that radiation oncology inpatients have complicated medical problems, and they support the training of radiation oncologists in the comprehensive medical care of patients.
尽管住院患者护理在许多国家是放射肿瘤学实践的一个重要方面，但从未进行过详细研究。本研究的目的是描述在一年时间里放射肿瘤学住院服务的收治情况，包括患者特征、原发性恶性肿瘤、常见非恶性诊断、放疗使用情况及入院结局。
利用医院计算机数据库，我们分析了一家拥有424张床位的教学医院中11张放射肿瘤学床位在1991年3月31日至1992年4月1日期间的使用情况。
共收治277例患者，342人次入院。中位年龄为66.5岁；男女比例为1:1。最常见的原发性肿瘤诊断为肺癌（42%）、妇科癌（15%）、泌尿生殖系统癌（14%）和乳腺癌（8%）。仅17%的患者唯一诊断为癌症；大多数患者有多种内科诊断。感染（22%）、神经疾病（20%）、心血管疾病（13%）和内分泌疾病（9%）是最常见的。平均住院时间为11.25天。大多数入院患者（71%）出院后回家；少数患者（15%）死亡。仅一半的入院涉及放疗，这表明患者护理的重点是癌症并发症或其他活跃内科问题的医疗治疗。
这些数据表明放射肿瘤学住院患者有复杂的内科问题，并且支持对放射肿瘤学家进行患者综合医疗护理方面的培训。
