[Present status and characteristics of the terminal care of dying patients in head and neck cancer].
Sixty-two head and neck cancer patients who died in 1981 and 1982 were analyzed. At the terminal stage, most of the patients could see or feel their tumors by themselves. Seventy-one percent of them were laryngectomized or tracheotomized, so they could not speak, and its was frequently difficult to know what they wanted to say or ask. These 2 facts made the clinical care of these patients difficult. More than half of the families of these patients did not want them to live longer only to be tortured by their disease.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000191:economics / Q000628:therapy*; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010148:Intractable Pain / Q000628:therapy; D010359:Patient Readmission; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000191:economics