Total pain in patients with uterine cervix cancer in palliative care

Abstract

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the second most frequent neoplasm in the female population. Among its range of symptoms, pain is one of the most exceeded. Total pain is a set of physical, psychic, social, and spiritual problems that may be present at any time of illness. More precisely in cervical neoplasia in young patients, this type of pain may be present due to falling ill in the productive phase. Objective: to discuss the presence of total pain in patients with uterine cervix cancer in palliative care. Methodology: This is an integrative review of the literature. The LILACS and SciELO databases were used. The following descriptors were used: Cancer pain; Nursing care and cervical neoplasias. From this, 45 articles were found. Contextualizing the inclusion criteria, which were: available text, language in Portuguese and year of publication from 2011 to 2016, 18 articles emerged. With the reading, it was noticed that 10 of these met the objective of the research. Results and Discussion: It was verified that all articles bring the definition of pain according to the National Association for the Study of Pain, in which it is a sensitive and emotional experience, which may be associated with actual or potential tissue damage. 40% demonstrate that poor pain relief is a reality for many patients. Already 30% report that the tendency to focus only on the physical aspect of pain and to exclude the other components is a great obstacle to the management of pain in palliative care. Conclusion: Total pain in patients in palliative care is influenced by several factors, necessitating a multidimensional approach. It has been realized that it is not possible to control physical pain, nor any other symptom, without the simultaneous control of all other aspects that cause suffering to patients.