Reasons for Admission and Outcome to an Acute Palliative Care Unit in Patients with Advanced Malignancy in a Cancer Hospital.

Introduction: The alleviation of suffering is a primary goal of palliative care team for patients with terminal cancer. In some cases, patients experience symptoms requiring inpatient care. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the clinical presentation and outcomes of hospitalisation in patients that were admitted to the acute palliative care service.

Materials and methods: This is a retrospective descriptive study looking at admissions to an acute palliative care unit in a single centre over a 24-month period. Medical records of all patients, admitted in palliative care unit from 1 January, 2013, to 31 December, 2014, were reviewed for reason of admission and outcome.

Results: A total of 226 patients were identified and included in the present investigation. Among these, 55.5% (125) were females. The median age of the cohort was 48 (15-86) years. The most common reasons for admission were alteration in consciousness (19.5%), respiratory tract infection (18%), diarrhoea and/or vomiting (14.2%) and respiratory distress (not related to infection) (13.4%). The median duration of hospital stay was 4 (0- 27) days. The majority of the patients were discharged home (65.1%). However, a significant portion (33.1%) of the patients did not survive the hospitalisation. Following discharge from the hospital, at 4-weeks follow-up, the survival rate was 38.7%. This dropped to 21.7% at 8-weeks.

Conclusion: Patients with advanced disease have a multitude of reasons to seek acute inpatient care. The majority of the patients were discharged following care. However, the survival rate of patients following discharge was low.