Overview of Palliative Surgery: Principles and Priorities

Abstract

The vital role of palliative care in the management of patients with advanced chronic illness has been embraced in recent years with the advent of specialized education and training pathways, dedicated clinical programs, specific quality metrics, and burgeoning research initiatives in the practice of medicine. In contrast, though palliative surgery has a pervasive presence in the practice of surgery, it has not universally been accepted as a distinct area of expertise in the surgical literature. Recently, leaders in the surgical community have begun to formalize their commitment to training and educating surgeons in palliative surgery and surgical palliative care scenarios. As the role of surgeons in palliative care is increasingly recognized, it is important to recognize where this field stands now and to consider the many challenges that lie ahead. *Corresponding author: Paul J Mosca, M.D, Ph.D, MBA, 3116 North, Duke Street, Durham, NC 27704, USA, Tel: (919) 660-2244; Fax: (919) 660-2255; E-mail: paul.mosca@duke.edu Received October 16, 2012; Accepted October 25, 2012; Published October 28, 2012 Citation: Hanna J, Blazer DG, Mosca PJ (2012) Overview of Palliative Surgery: Principles and Priorities. J Palliative Care Med 2:132. doi:10.4172/21657386.1000132 Copyright: © 2012 Hanna J, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.