Cuidados paliativos de enfermería en paciente con cordoma de nasofaringe en fase terminal

Abstract

Introduction: Palliative care comprises a set of activities carried out with the aim of controlling or alleviating symptoms, maximizing the quality of life of terminally ill patients or those with a fatal disease, taking into account the biological, psychological, cultural, social and spiritual dimensions and provide support to family members. The ideal in this care is the participation of the multidisciplinary team. Chordoma is a rare bone tumor of notochordal origin, infrequent, malignant, with an incidence of 1-4% and that due to its aggressive nature directly impacts the quality of life of the patient. It is believed that it originates from notochord remains, appearing at the level of the skull base to the sacral-coccygeal region. Among the risk factors for the disease are mentioned: male sex, white race, differs in age, possible genetic predisposition or family inheritance; the environmental factor has not been identified. Symptoms begin to show after the tumor reaches a considerable size. Pain is listed as one of the main discomforts, lack of appetite and sleep, states of anxiety, depression, despair or suffering at the end of life also occur frequently, so it is important not only to attend to physical symptoms, but to look at in the patient as a whole. When the diagnosis is reached, the disease is usually advanced or recurrent, in addition to being complex for physicians to differentiate it from other conditions; For this, immunohistochemistry offers the advantage of being able to determine and distinguish chordoma-type tumor cells.