Open AccessDyspnea management in palliative home care: A case series in Malaysia
Author(s) -
Rojanasak Thongkhamcharoen,
Katrina Breaden,
Meera Agar,
Ednin Hamzah
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
indian journal of palliative care/indian journal of palliative care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.395
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1998-3735
pISSN - 0973-1075
DOI - 10.4103/0973-1075.100835
Subject(s) - medicine , palliative care , context (archaeology) , intervention (counseling) , medical prescription , pain management , intensive care medicine , nursing , physical therapy , paleontology , biology
Managing dyspnea at home is a challenging task. Although a competent palliative home care team can assist a patient to live at home with better pain control, dyspnea is usually not as well managed. In the Asian context, there are few research studies in dyspnea management in palliative home care. This paper aims to illustrate the cultural context that has an impact on dyspnea management at home and the assessment and management of dyspnea in a community palliative care setting in Malaysia. This paper reports on a study of 5 dyspneic patients suffering from both cancer-related and non-cancer-related dyspnea. Its focus is on a unique Asian cultural belief system that affects communication about prognosis and the role of family in palliative home care. In addition, this paper also describes dyspnea assessment, the barriers to morphine use, benzodiazepine prescription, oxygen therapy, and nonpharmacologic intervention in this center.