Refractory cancer pain in young child at end?of?life: Can we alleviate the suffering?
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Date
2022-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
Abstract
Pain is a common and highly distressing symptom in children with advanced malignancies and it is often multifactorial at the end?of?life. The prognosis of cancer pain is reported to be worse in those with mixed pain type, high pain severity, daily opioid use, and poor emotional well?being. We describe a case of 13?year?old boy, known case of metastatic Ewing sarcoma right iliac bone, who presented to our palliative care ward with intractable pain and was finally discharged home for terminal care with high doses of morphine, ketamine, and midazolam infusion through elastomeric pump attached to a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC line). The suffering of imminently dying children should be reduced, and judicious dose escalation of opioids along with adjuvants is appropriate and often necessary.
Description
Keywords
Elastomeric pumps, ketamine, neuropathic, opioids, pediatric
Citation
Agarwal Shilpi, Singh Vikram Pratap, Sangwan Akansha, Mishra Seema. Refractory cancer pain in young child at end?of?life: Can we alleviate the suffering?. Indian Journal of Cancer . 2022 Jun; 59(2): 265-268