SUPPORTIVE CARE FOR THE RENAL PATIENT
Oxford Supportive Care Series
E. Joanna Chambers, Michael Germain and Edwina Brown (Eds)
Oxford University Press, 2004
276pp
ISBN 0-19-851616-9
RRP £49.95, $US95.00
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Supportive care is the multidisciplinary holistic care of patients and their families from the time of diagnosis, through treatments aimed at cure or prolonging life, and into the phase currently acknowledged as palliative care. In simple terms, it is the application of the holistic multidisciplinary approach to care that is known so well in palliative care, applied earlier in the course of the patient’s illness.
The opening chapters deal with the need for this type of supportive care for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and how to make it happen. The clinical practice guideline developed by the Renal Physicians Association and the American Society of Nephrology regarding decision making in end-stage renal disease is particularly instructive. There are useful chapters on the control of symptoms related to both the renal disease and to co-morbidities. These chapters and the separate chapter on the management of pain contain a number of useful tables for the adjustment of medication doses in ESRD. There are chapters that discuss advanced directives, health-related quality of life, psychological and psychiatric considerations, sexual dysfunction, and spiritual care. The closing chapters deal with traditional palliative end-of-life care for patients with ESRD.
The introduction of this type of supportive care earlier in the course of the disease for patients with ESRD is long overdue and this book should be required reading for anybody training in nephrology. It certainly should have a place on the library shelf in any dialysis unit. It will also be useful to people who work in palliative care, as it will allow a better understanding of the particular problems and symptoms patients with ESRD bring to palliative care. The chapters on symptom control and the information about medication adjustments are particularly useful.
Roger Woodruff
Director of Palliative Care, Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia
(June 2005)
Author Information
Dr. E. Joanna Chambers is Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Southmead Hospital, Bristol, UK
Michael Germain is Associate Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA
Edwina Brown is Consultant Nephrologist, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK
Table of Contents
1. Changing patterns of renal replacement therapy
Paul Roderick & David Ansell
2. The concept of supportive care for the renal patient
Gary S. Reiter & E. Joanna Chambers
3. Planning a renal palliative care programme and its components
Lewis M. Cohen
4. Advanced directives and advance care planning in patients with end-stage renal disease
Jean L. Holley
5. What determines a good outcome? The selection of patients for renal replacement therapy
Terry Feest
6. Health-related quality of life in chronic renal failure
Donna L. Lamping
7. (Part 1) Symptoms of renal disease: dialysis related symptoms
Michael Germain & Sharon McCarthy
7. (Part 2) Symptoms of renal disease: the treatment and palliation of symptoms due to co-morbidity in end-stage renal disease
Mohamed Abed Sekkarie & Richard Swartz
8. Management of pain in renal failure
Charles J. Ferro, E. Joanna Chambers & Sara N. Davison
9. Psychological and psychiatric considerations in patients with advanced renal disease
Jean Hooper & Lewis Cohen
10. Sexual dysfunction in patients with chronic kidney disease
Shirin Shirani & Frederic O. Finkelstein
11. Spiritual care of the renal patient
Canon Chris Davies & Ira Byock
12. Support of the home dialysis patient
Alastair Hutchison & Helen Hirst
13. Initiation and withdrawal of dialysis
Lionel U. Mailloux
14. A multidisciplinary approach to end-of-life care
Erica Perry, Julie Gumban Roberts & George Kelly
15. End of life
Jeremy Levy
Index
