Dyspnoea at the end of life: instrument development and validation-the CONFORTO Strategy.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the construction and validation of the algorithm for Criteria for inclusion; Objective of dyspnoea; Notification of patient/family/health professionals; Facial air flow; Oxygen; Relaxion and breathing; Treating causes of dyspnoea and Opioid (CONFORTO), an instrument to guide health professionals in managing dyspnoea in patients with an advance stage of the disease at the end-of-life. METHODS: The study was carried out in three stages: (1) literature review and construction of CONFORTO; (2) semantic validation; (3) application of the CONFORTO Strategy to health professionals as a test (before video lessons) and post-test (20 days after watching video lessons) methodology. The scores obtained in the pretest and post-test were compared using the Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: Seventy-four professionals from different internal medicine and intensive care units participated in the study. The CONFORTO Strategy involved eight acronym-forming items: Criteria for inclusion; Objective of dyspnoea; Notification of patient/family/health professionals; Facial air flow; Oxygen; Relaxion and breathing; Treating causes of dyspnoea and Opioid. The post-test indicated a significant increase in the score for the following items: facial air flow (p=0.016); oxygen (p=0.002); relaxation and breathing (p=0.002) and treating the causes of dyspnoea (p=0.011). The increase in score occurred after the training sessions with video lessons. CONCLUSION: The CONFORTO Strategy proved valid and reliable for managing dyspnoea in patients with an advanced stage of the disease at the end-of-life. Because the instrument is easy-to-use, it can be used by the entire health team at any assistance-providing location, and can, thus, contribute to improving dyspnoea management for these patients.

Invasive Home Mechanical Ventilation: 10-Year Experience of a Pediatric Home Care Service.

BACKGROUND: Children dependent on invasive home mechanical ventilation (HMV) represent a growing population worldwide. The objective of this study was to assess the experience of 10 years of medical assistance given to pediatric patients on continuous invasive HMV at a Brazilian Home Care Service (HCS), specifically patient characteristics and predictors of outcome (ie, hospital readmission, death, and location of death). METHODS: Medical records for children on invasive HMV at the HCS between 2007 and 2016 were evaluated to collect the following data: age at admission to HCS, sex, principal diagnosis, length of hospital admission and home care period, number and cause of hospital readmissions, number of procedures, death and location of death. The odds ratio was used to understand the likelihood of death for each diagnosis, hospital readmission, and admission age, using a binary logistic regression model. RESULTS: Twenty-seven children were evaluated. The most prevalent diagnosis was cerebral palsy (37.0%). The mean duration of home care was higher than the mean hospital length of stay (955.0 ± 4.6 d versus 341.0 ± 0.5 d, respectively). First hospital readmission mean was at 392.6 ± 548.9 d, and the main cause was respiratory tract infection (45.9%), especially tracheitis. Of the total number of deaths (13), 76.9% occurred in hospital units. There was no statistically significant result observed for greater odds of death for any of the diagnoses and admission age on HCS. However, children who had a hospital readmission < 6 months after hospital discharge presented 10% greater chance of death (P = .02). CONCLUSIONS: The most prevalent diagnosis of children on continuous invasive HMV was cerebral palsy. The main cause of hospital readmission was respiratory tract infection, especially tracheitis. Having the first hospital readmission at < 6 months after discharge was shown to be a risk factor associated with mortality.

Analyses of the effectiveness of a Brazilian pediatric home care service: a preliminary study.

BACKGROUND: Technological advances in health care currently provide better care conditions and have increased survival rates of premature infants, along with increasing the life expectancy of chronically ill children. In this context, the home care service has emerged as an effective tool for the treatment of this group of children. Thus, this preliminary study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the Home Care Service (HCS) with regard to pediatric care. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed through a medical record analysis of a tertiary hospital in Minas Gerais/Brazil. Two groups were compared: 36 patients from the HCS (home group) and 13 patients hospitalized with an indication for home care (hospital group). To analyze the effectiveness of HCS, we evaluated the number of readmissions, infection rate, number of procedures, and optimization of beds. RESULTS: The hospital group presented 6.04 times more infections and was submitted to 6.43 times more procedures. The home group presented lower readmission rates; with 41.66% of children studied not being readmitted and 76.19% of those who needed readmissions did so after more than 30 days from hospital discharge. HCS optimized hospital beds and allowed, over five (5) years, the hospitalization of around 102 patients in the hospital studied. CONCLUSION: In this preliminary study, HCS reduced the number of procedures and infections compared to hospitalized patients. Moreover, HCS presented lower readmission rates and optimized hospital beds, which could be considered an indication of effectiveness.

Lung pseudotumor as the initial presentation of Wegener's granulomatosis.

Wegener's granulomatosis is a multisystemic inflammatory illness of unknown etiology, characterized by vasculitis of small and medium caliber vessels. The most common clinical manifestations involve the upper respiratory tract, lungs and kidneys. Common alterations in imaging studies include pulmonary opacities and bilateral multiple nodules, cavitations occurring in 50% of the cases. Treatment includes corticosteroids and immunosuppressants. We describe an atypical case of a 61-year-old man initially investigated due to suspicion of a unilateral lung tumor, which proved to be, in fact, a case of Wegener's granulomatosis.

Pseudotumor pulmonar como apresentação inicial de granulomatose de Wegener / Lung pseudotumor as the initial presentation of Wegener's granulomatosis

A granulomatose de Wegener é uma doença inflamatória multissistêmica de etiologia desconhecida, que se caracteriza por vasculite de pequeno e médio calibre. As manifestações clínicas mais comuns envolvem o trato respiratório superior, pulmões e rins e as alterações encontradas nos exames de imagem são geralmente opacidades pulmonares ou nódulos múltiplos, bilaterais e, em 50 por cento dos casos, cavitações. O tratamento é feito com corticoides e imunossupressores. Descreve-se um caso atípico de um homem de 61 anos cuja investigação inicial de um tumor pulmonar unilateral evidenciou, na verdade, Granulomatose de Wegener.

Wegener's granulomatosis is a multisystemic inflammatory illness of unknown etiology, characterized by vasculitis of small and medium caliber vessels. The most common clinical manifestations involve the upper respiratory tract, lungs and kidneys. Common alterations in imaging studies include pulmonary opacities and bilateral multiple nodules, cavitations occurring in 50 percent of the cases. Treatment includes corticosteroids and immunosuppressants. We describe an atypical case of a 61-year-old man initially investigated due to suspicion of a unilateral lung tumor, which proved to be, in fact, a case of Wegener's granulomatosis.