Palliative Care Referral in Adult Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants: An Integrative Literature Review.
Abigail C Short, Mika Kuroki, Lorinda A Coombs
PMID 39324492WHAT IT FOUND
Adult allogeneic HSCT patients have high symptom and distress needs.
Palliative care was associated with improved quality of life and lower symptom burden, but misconceptions and timing mean early referral is uncommon.
Key findings
01In adult allogeneic HSCT hospitalization, palliative care visits most often addressed nausea, pain, diarrhea, and constipation.
02Palliative care during hospitalization was associated with significantly improved quality of life, fatigue, depression, and anxiety at two weeks post-HSCT, and with lower symptom burden increases.
03Only about 1.95% of HSCT recipients receive early palliative care, and patients, clinicians, and families often equate it with end-of-life care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The review included only English-language articles and excluded pediatric patients. It considered only the acute HSCT phase, so long-term effects of palliative care integration were not assessed. The included evidence was heterogeneous, with narrative reviews, qualitative studies, cohort studies, and randomized trials.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that routine early palliative care improves outcomes for every adult allogeneic HSCT patient. The review is based on heterogeneous studies, covers only the acute phase in English-language adult literature, and reports that early palliative care is uncommon.