Dermatológia pre prax 3/2023

Pruritus in palliative patients

Palliative medicine deals with the diagnosis and treatment of patients with a chronic incurable, advanced and actively progressing disease with a limited survival time. Since causal treatment is no longer possible in these patients, symptomatic treatment is used. Its goal is to alleviate the patient’s suffering and improve his quality of life. One of the symptoms, palliative patients suffer from, is pruritus. It occurs not only in oncological patients, but also in patients with liver and kidney failure, and can be an adverse effect of pharmacotherapy used in palliative medicine. The aim of the review article is to summarize the latest knowledge about pruritus in palliative patients, its etiopathogenesis and the possibilities of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment. Since specialized care by a dermatologist is not always available for these patients (e.g. due to immobility), general practitioners, palliative specialists and health workers who treat palliative patients should also have basic knowledge in this area.

Keywords: pruritus, uremia, cholestasis, palliative care, opioids