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Role of Palliative Care in Improving the Quality of Life in Elderly with Advanced Lung Disease

  • Pulmonology and Respiratory Care (A Musani and E Folch, Section Editors)
  • Published:
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Abstract

The traditional “either cure or comfort” approach does not optimize palliative care in elderly with advanced lung disease. Instead, a holistic, patient-centered, “comfort and cure together” approach with palliative and best care practices integrated as needed across the entire illness course will improve quality of life and other outcomes in these patients and their families. Competency in primary palliative care, identification of patient and family vulnerability, care plans formed by patient-centered communication, timely palliative responsiveness, and effective advance care planning are key components that support this approach. Dependency of patients on emergency or in-patient care for crisis of dyspnea and other symptoms is costly. To resolve this issue, a proactive, collaborative management with appropriate and carefully monitored use of opioids and other treatment is recommended. A revised primary care—integrating palliative care to curative/restorative care and judiciously referring to specialist palliative care—is essential for sustainable improvement in palliative care delivery.

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Abbreviations

ACP:

advance care planning

COPD:

chronic obstructive lung disease

FEV1:

forced expiratory volume in one second

ILD:

interstitial lung disease

PC:

palliative care

pO2:

partial pressure of oxygen

QoL:

quality of life

VC:

vital capacity

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Izmir Dr. Suat Seren Training and Research Hospital for Thoracic Medicine and Surgery, Yenişehir, Izmir, Turkey

    Semra Bilaçeroğlu

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  1. Semra Bilaçeroğlu
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Correspondence to Semra Bilaçeroğlu.

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Semra Bilaceroglu declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by the author.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Pulmonology and Respiratory Care

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Bilaçeroğlu, S. Role of Palliative Care in Improving the Quality of Life in Elderly with Advanced Lung Disease. Curr Geri Rep 5, 103–109 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13670-016-0173-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13670-016-0173-x

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