[Usefulness of implementing a dysphagia care programme at an intermediate and long stay hospital]. / Utilidad de implantar un programa de atención a la disfagia en un Hospital de Media y Larga Estancia.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the initial results of the implementation of a dysphagia assessment and intervention programme and to know which variables showed significant differences between patients with and without dysphagia detected by this way at an intermediate and long stay hospital. METHODS: Descriptive and retrospective study on the assessment performed to patients suspected of having dysphagia and of the subsequent intervention done on those in whom it was confirmed. A standardized clinical method using different viscosities and volumes was used. After confirming the condition, different dietary, postural, and educational cares were undertaken. Demographical, clinical, and analytical variables were registered. RESULTS: 146 patients were included, 110 of them presenting dysphagia of whom the corresponding assessments and interventions were described. This represented a dysphagia prevalence of 14.8% among all admitted patients. The univariate analysis between patients with and without dysphagia showed that the former presented at the time of admission a higher prevalence of a feeding tube (p = 0.011) and a lower proportion of mild cognitive impairment (p = 0.048); and at the time of hospital discharge, lower functional recovery (p < 0.01) and higher presence of a feeding tube (p = 0.028), hyponutrition(p < 0,01), and mortality (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Given its frequent presentation and important clinical repercussion, and in order to improve health care quality at ILSH, the implementation of a dysphagia care programme is advisable. The dysphagia detected was correlated with the presence of a feeding tube and had clear implications on the clinical course at a functional and nutritional level and vital prognosis.

[Approximation to palliative care in the advanced non-malignant diseases]. / Aproximación a los cuidados paliativos en las enfermedades avanzadas no malignas.

Nowadays Palliative Medicine (PM) is changing from a specific point of view towards patients with advanced cancer, to another more generic that also keep in mind patients with advanced non malignant disease. Likewise it is more and more deeply rooted customs that the end-of-life care has become a fundamental right of our Society. But as a matter of fact, these patients with non-cancer diseases unusually go into a Palliative Care (PC) programme. It is known the difficulty to diagnosis the end of life clinical condition (EOLCC) in them. In this article we comment the justification and restriction of PC in patients with non-malignant cancer diseases, as well as the paradoxical situation to come out, in spite of the increasing programes of PC gradually. But above all we propose in a practical way resolve when a patient with non malignant organ advanced disease (NMOAD) could be subsidiary of PC. For that purpose we have to know the diagnosis and the prognostic factors in connection with the EOLCC of the NMOAD more common (advanced chronical pulmonary disease, advanced chronical heart failure, advanced cirrhosis hepatic, advanced chronical renal failure and very evolved dementia), to set up an appropriate make decisions keeping in mind the preferences and wishes of the patient and family, to document and record in the clinical history all those parameters and offerer to the patient the treatment more suitable with the intention to get a worthy death bearing in mind clinical, cultural and ethical standards. It is pointed out the necessity to carry out prospective studies to help setting up some inclusion criterions in PC programmes for patients with NMOAD.

[Miliary tuberculosis and cerebral tuberculomas. Apropos a case]. / Tuberculosis miliar y tuberculomas cerebrales. A propósito de un caso.

We present a case of a 45-year-old patient with miliary tuberculosis (MI), whose initial clinical symptomatology was uncertain. A few weeks after the beginning of chemotherapy, and in the face a Jacksonian crisis, cerebral tuberculomas were detected with CAT. The interesting thing in this case is to highlight that the diagnosis of MT anatomopathologic after pulmonary biopsy with mini-thoracotomy and that the cerebral complication could be classified within the so-called "paradoxical worsening" as it has been documented in the literature.