Paliatívna medicína a liečba bolesti 1/2009

Common neurological disorders demanding palliative care

Palliative management will offer comprehensive support that addresses the many components of discomfort that may accompany advanced disease. In the practice of neurology, many degenerative conditions are not accessible to cure and cause major discomforts and much family distress. In the prolonged course of many incurable diseases it may be possible to distinguish two phases: supportive and terminal phase. The most frequent neurological diseases that require palliative care in advanced stages are stroke, demyelinating disease, Parkinson’s disease, dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cerebral neoplasm and sequelae of traumatic brain injury.

Keywords: neurology, degenerative disease, palliative care, terminal phase.