Malignant wound management in advanced illness

Abstract

This article describes why this review is timely and relevant. To report on the recent research, which advances our understanding and practice of palliative wound care (wound-related pain and symptom management or wound palliation). This article describes the main themes in the literature covered by the article. The main themes include the problem of malodour and the palliative management of cutaneous and subcutaneous malignancy of skin and nonskin origins. The findings from an international survey of measures to combat wound malodour are reported, which indicate that malodour is one of the most distressing and difficult to manage symptoms associated with malignant wounds. A relatively novel palliative treatment for cutaneous malignancy, electrochemotherapy, is outlined, together with the growing evidence supporting its use. This article describes the implications of the findings for clinical practice or research. The findings of the wound malodour survey indicate that approaches to managing malodour are wide ranging, but ineffective. Collaborate research and development is needed with industry into interventions to combat malodour, which are based on the causal agents. The growing evidence of the effectiveness of electrochemotherapy, as an uncomplicated palliative treatment and method of managing symptoms, offers palliative care clinicians a means of managing the otherwise relentless progression of cutaneous malignancy.