title: Palliative sedation in end-of-life care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this review was to present and comment on recent data published on palliative sedation in palliative and end-of-life care. Palliative sedation is a medical procedure used to deal with the refractory symptoms occurring in the advanced stages of cancer. It has clinical, nursing, relational and ethical implications, making it a highly sensitive issue.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over the last 12 months, a number of authors have published interesting new findings on different areas of palliative sedation, that is prevalence, indications, monitoring, duration and choice of drugs. In particular, a clear definition of palliative sedation and of its more pronounced form, deep continuous sedation (DCS), has emerged. It has been confirmed that, when performed in the correct way and with the right aims, palliative sedation does not have a detrimental impact on survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Recent findings confirm that palliative sedation is an integral part of a medical palliative care approach and is needed in certain clinical situations. It is a legitimate clinical practice from any ethical point of view. While oncologists should have a basic knowledge of the procedure, its in depth study is a core competency for palliative care physicians.
authors.affiliation: Palliative Care Unit, IRCCS Istituto Scientifico Romagnolo per lo Studio e la Cura dei Tumori (IRST), Meldola, Italy. ma.maltoni@ausl.fo.it
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maltoni
authors.forename: Emanuela
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Scarpi
authors.forename: Oriana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Nanni
mesh_terms: D016292:Procedural Sedation / Q000379:methods*; D054810:Deep Sedation / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000379:methods*