Background: Palliative care aims to provide maximum comfort to the patient. However it is unknown what factors facilitate or hinder the experience of comfort, from the perspective of inpatients of palliative care units. This lack of knowledge hinders the development of comfort interventions adjusted to these patients. The aim of this research is to describe the comfort and discomfort experienced by inpatients at palliative care units. Methods: A phenomenological descriptive study was undertaken. Ten inpatients were recruited from a Spanish palliative care unit and seven from a Portuguese palliative care unit. Data were collected using individual interviews and analysed following the method of Giorgi. Results: Four themes reflect the essence of the lived experience: The Palliative Care as a response to the patient's needs with advanced disease, attempt to naturalize advanced disease, confrontation with their own vulnerability, openness to the spiritual dimension. Conclusions: Informants revealed that they experience comfort through humanized care, differentiated environment, symptomatic control, hope and relationships. The discomfort emerges from the losses and powerlessness against their situation. Even if such findings may seem intuitive, documenting them is essential because it invites us to reflect on our convictions about what it means to be comfortable for these patients, and allows incorporating this information in the design of focused interventions to maximize the comfort experience.

OBJECTIVE: There is a worldwide concern about rational drug use, more specifically related to antimicrobial utilization. In developing countries, few resources are intended for monitoring on rational drug use. Moreover, there are limited data on the use of antimicrobial agents in hospitals. A study was carried out to describe patterns of use of antimicrobial agents over a 7-year period (1990 to 1996). METHODS: The study was conducted in a 690-bed tertiary care university hospital in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Hospital records were reviewed to identify inpatient antibiotics use. Results were expressed in defined daily dose per 100-beds/day. Cluster analysis was performed to determine the trends in use of individual agents. RESULTS: Antimicrobials use increased year after year, from 83.8 DDD per 100 beds-day in 1990 to 124.58 DDD per 100 beds-day in 1996. Penicillins were the drug group mostly used (39.6%), followed by cephalosporins (15.0%), aminoglycosides (14.4%), sulfonamides (12.8%), glycopeptides (3.6%), and lincosamides (3.1%). These groups were responsible for around 90% of all agents used. The use of antimicrobial agents was divided into thirteen groups based on cluster analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Antimicrobial use increased dramatically in the study period, and this increase was significantly higher when compared to other studies. When newer alternative agents became available in the hospital, the use of already existing drugs decreased and in some cases remained relatively stable. After implementing specific interventions, such as an effort for the correct use of cefoxitin, the expected changes in use were observed.

OBJECTIVE: Surgical wound infection (SWI) is a serious hospital infection due to its incidence, morbidity and mortality. Because of the short hospital stay, the majority of SWI appears post-discharge, and its incidence is often underreported when there is no follow-up of the surgical patient post discharge. The need of a surveillance system for surgical patient after discharge is critical for infection control. The study objective was to determine the incidence of SWI in surgical patients and to compare the frequency of SWI diagnosed in-hospital and after discharge. METHODS: A prospective cohort study was carried out in a university hospital. Patients admitted to the general surgery unit (504) and underwent digestive tract surgery in the first semester of the year 2000 were followed up during their hospital stay and after discharge. RESULTS: Of 504 surgical patients, 398 (79.0%) returned to follow up in the post discharge outpatient clinic. Of the total surgical wound infections diagnosed, most (62.9%) was detected in the post discharge outpatient clinic, and 88% of SWI diagnosed were classified as superficial, and 67% reported up to day 7 after discharge. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed the importance of following up surgical patients after discharge to achieve reliable incidence data on surgical wound infection because of the late occurrence of infection in the majority of cases, which results in underreporting when the patient is followed up only during the hospital stay.

OBJECTIVE: To review epidemiological data from patients admitted to a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), Brazil, and to compare them to medical aspects associated to disease severity and mortality. Also, to profile these patients, including demographic data, disease prevalence, mortality rates and associated factors. METHODS: Retrospective data were collected from all patients admitted in a PICU of a university hospital between 1978 and 1994. Data were presented as percentages and compared using Chi-square, and calculating the relative risk (RR) with a 95% confidence interval, p

OBJECTIVE: To prospectively assess the performance of socially expected activities of psychiatric patients in the first year after their discharge from a psychiatric ward of a general hospital. Also, to evaluate the patients' and their family' expectations on the former's performance. METHODS: The study was carried out in a general hospital in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. The Katz Scale was applied to the patient and their family informer at the time of hospitalization regarding to the week preceding admission, and at one, six and 12 months after hospital discharge, regarding to the preceding week. Of the 86 pairs who were initially included in the study, 55 patients (33 women and 22 men) and their respective family informers completed the study. Performance scores and expectations were compared using variance (ANOVA) and t-student test. RESULTS: Expectation did not show significant variations either in the patient's evaluation or in the family's evaluation. According to both evaluations, expectation was significantly higher than performance. A significant improvement in the performance of socially expected activities was observed as early as one month after discharge compared to the pre-admission period and was unchanged along the first year in both evaluations of the patient and their family. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that admission to a psychiatric ward of a general hospital, in addition to reducing the psychiatric symptoms, contributed to improving the performance of socially expected activities. The average level of performance was unchanged throughout the first year after discharge, although demographic and medical variables can influence these results.

Esse estudo objetivou identificar a prevalência de lesões por fricção (LF) em pacientes hospitalizados com câncer e avaliar os fatores demográficos e clínicos associados ao seu desenvolvimento. Estudo epidemiológico, de corte transversal, realizado no Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo Octavio Frias de Oliveira. Todos os pacientes adultos, internados entre 10 e 18 de abril de 2010, foram avaliados por meio de entrevista e exame físico. Utilizou-se o teste Qui-Quadrado para comparação das variáveis demográficas e clínicas entre pacientes com e sem LF. Foram avaliados 157 pacientes: cinco apresentaram nove LF, acarretando prevalência de 3,3%. Quanto às variáveis demográficas, houve diferença estatisticamente significativa somente para o número de filhos (p=0,027). Clinicamente, pacientes com LF apresentaram menores escores na escala de Karnofsky (p=0,031) e na Escala de Braden (p=0,026), além de comportamento pouco colaborativo (p=0,042). Esse estudo contribui para um melhor conhecimento acerca das LF em pacientes com câncer.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate and compare birthweight and scores as predictors of neonatal mortality in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). METHODS: The survey included 494 newborns admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of a general hospital in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, immediately after delivery, between March 1997 and June 1998. Birthweight and scores were evaluated in terms of the variable "death while in NICU". Exclusion criteria were: discharge or death less than 24 hours after admission, admission not immediately following delivery, incomplete study protocol, and congenital malformations incompatible with survival. For CRIB (Clinical Risk Index for Babies) evaluation purposes, only patients born weighing up to 1,500 g were considered. ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) curves were calculated for SNAP (Score for Neonatal Acute Physiology) , SNAP-PE (Score for Neonatal Acute Physiology - Perinatal Extension), SNAP II, SNAP-PE II , and CRIB scores, as well as for birthweight. RESULTS: Of the 494 patients studied, 44 died (8.9% mortality). Of the 102 patients born weighing up to 1,500 g, 32 (31.3%) died. The area below the ROC curves ranged from 0.81 to 0.94. There were no statistically significant differences between the areas obtained for all scores evaluated. All mortality risk scores evaluated performed better than birthweight, especially on newborns with birthweight =1,500 g. CONCLUSIONS: All neonatal mortality scores had better performance and were superior to birthweight as measures of in-hospital mortality risk for newborns admitted to NICU.

OBJECTIVES: Psychiatric hospitalization though burdensome remains a very important therapeutic option for severely-ill psychiatric patients. Hospitalization in general hospital psychiatry units (GHPU) are often regarded as the best option. A study was carried out with the purpose of assessing socioeconomic and medical variables associated with success and failure of hospitalization. METHODS: A review was performed on sociodemographics and medical data of 1,463 patients admitted to a general hospital's GHPU in the period between 1986 and 1997. Statistical analysis was conducted using univariate and multivariate polythomic logistic regression. RESULTS: In the multivariate analysis three factors were identified as associated to poor hospitalization outcomes (poor condition at discharge and longer hospital stay): age >;60 years, poor social functioning, and diagnosis of organic mental disorder. CONCLUSIONS: Although 80% of the patients experienced a considerable symptomatic improvement, a small group benefited less from hospitalization. It is suggestive that these patients would benefit more from psychosocial interventions.