Surgical Palliative Care

This book provides detailed guidance for all palliative care specialists, surgeons and professions allied to medicine on the important part that surgery can play in palliation and support of all patients with many different diseases and problems. It also makes suggestions to surgeons about how to incorporate palliative care principles into sugical practice.

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Surgical Palliative Care describes the principles and practice of surgery in the context of palliative and supportive care. Surgery is often considered too invasive to be useful in palliation and clinicians instinctively turn to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and other drugs. Surgery, with increasingly minimal access techniques, may be simpler and less invasive than other treatments and produces excellent palliation. Indeed, most types of surgery are not curative and the aim of this book is to alert all concerned with palliative care to the usefulness and appropriateness of a surgical option.

The text is divided into two sections; the first dealing with general issues, varying from quality of life measurement to spirituality, and the second illustrating their application in different specialties of surgery ranging from neurosurgery to urology. The book ends with a challenge to surgeons to change their perspective from curative surgery, in terms of simply cure or failure, to improvement in quality of life and relief of symptoms. Aimed primarily at palliative medicine and pain consultants, this book will also appeal to surgeons who increasingly need to know more about palliative care.