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Abstract
Palliative care (PC) plays a fundamental role in the pediatric population suffering from cancer, with few publications on the palliative sedation (PS) procedure in this group of patients.
Objective: to describe the characteristics of patients treated in the PC Unit of the Hospital de Niños Dr. Roberto del Río, with an advanced stage oncological diagnosis who received PS.
Patients and Method: Retrospective descriptive study. Clinical histories of children and adolescents with advanced cancer who received Palliative Sedation (PS) between 2003 and 2021 were reviewed. Variables were characterized in relation to patients and PS practice.
Results: 204 patients with cancer were included between 2003 and 2021; 22.5% received PS (46/204). We reviewed 36 medical records, the mean age was 8 years 7 months, 56% were male, and 45% with solid tumors. The most frequent refractory symptom was dyspnea (50%). 97 % received midazolam in continuous infusion. The time between the start of PS and death was greater than 72 hours in 44% of the patients. 72% of the sedated patients died hospitalized in low complexity units.
Conclusions: PS in children and adolescents in PC due to advanced cancer is a therapeutic tool, for occasional use, indicated for refractory symptoms, allowing optimizing the management of patients at the end-of-life stage. More multicenter studies are required to provide guidance that includes patients with non-oncological pathology.
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