Symptoms and psychosocial distress associated with malignant wounds: Secondary analysis of a prospective cohort study.

Abstract

e24008 Background: Symptoms associated with malignant wounds (MWs) worsen a patient's quality of life. However, MWs’ impact on psychosocial health and end-of-life status is unknown. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of the results of a large prospective cohort study conducted in 23 palliative care units in Japan. Consecutive patients were enrolled and followed up until their death or for six months. Patient demographics, symptom burden, medication use, and MW status were documented on admission. Healthcare professionals rated the symptoms using the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (IPOS), a 5-point Likert scale. Quality of death (QOD) was evaluated at death using the Good Death Scale (GDS). The primary outcome was the prevalence of severe psychological symptom burden, evaluated as an IPOS-feeling score of 2–4. Factors that affected psychological symptoms and their relationship with GDS were also investigated. Results: Among the 1896 enrolled patients, 156 (8.2%) had MWs. MWs predominantly affected females and younger patients, and the most common primary sites were the breast (28.2%) and head and neck (19.2%). Among the patients with MWs, 75 (50.3%), 59 (39.6%), and 42 (28.2%) had exudate, pain, and bleeding, respectively. Among the 32 patients with MWs requiring dressing change at least twice a day and 117 patients with MWs requiring dressing change less than once a day, 20 (62.5%) and 44 (37.6%) had an IPOS-feeling score of 2–4, respectively (p = .015). Patients with MWs required antidepressants and opioids more frequently and received higher doses of opioids. Between the patients with and without MW, there were significant differences in IPOS-feeling and pain scores but not in breathlessness, fatigue, anorexia, somnolence, or dry mouth scores. IPOS-feeling and pain scores were worse in patients with MWs. Patients without MWs did not have better GDS scores (p = .48). Conclusions: Patients with MWs frequently required antidepressants and opioids, suggesting an increased prevalence of depression and severe pain. Psychological distress was influenced by the frequency of dressing changes. The presence of MWs did not affect the QOD.[Table: see text]