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Query: UMLS:C0006625 (cachexia)
 5,650 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Elemental enteral alimentation (EEA) is an alternative to parenteral nutrition in patients with a functioning gastrointestinal tract and increased caloric requirements or in whom regular oral feeding is impossible or impractical. EEA is given by nasogastric, jejunostomy, or gastrostomy tube. It is useful in cases of short-gut syndrome, pancreatic disease, partial intestinal obstruction, colitis, neuropsychiatric cachexia, trauma, fistula, vascular insult, and renal and liver disease, as well as in patients being prepared for surgery or requiring hyperalimentation after surgery or abdominal irradiation. Strict attention must be paid to fluid and electrolyte status and to blood and urine glucose levels in patients receiving EEA. With use of a nasogastric tube, infection of the middle ear is a possible but uncommon complication.
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PMID:Meeting exceptional nutritional needs. 2. Elemental enteral alimentation. 10 Jul 74

Infantile transmural ulcerative enteritis is a disorder of early infancy characterized by feeding difficulties, intermittent and progressive diarrhea, cachexia, anemia, abdominal distention, and small-bowel dilation which may progress to intestinal obstruction. The pathologic process, of unknown etiology, involves a transmural enteritis with deep undermining mucosal ulceration, not unlike that seen in Crohn's disease, except that granulomas are usually not present. The early stages of the diseases may be reversible if the bowel is simply placed at rest by use of intravenous nutrition. In the later stages of the illness, there is progressive mechanical and functional intestinal obstruction due to inflammatory constriction of the distal small bowel and lack of effective peristalsis through the inflammed segments. The terminal stages are characterized by marked abdominal distention, complete obstruction, septicemia, and death. It is during the period of abdominal distention due to progressive intestinal obstruction that surgical intervention is of benefit. A cutaneous enterostomy proximal to the involved segments of small intestine serves to decompress the bowel, to minimize bacteremia, and to allow the distal inflamed intestine to heal. Total intravenous nutrition is mandatory for a period of several weeks until there is healing of the distal small bowel and closure of the enterostomy. In all surviving infants, bowel function has returned to normal and there have been no long-term sequelae or recurrences.
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PMID:Surgical management of infantile ulcerative enteritis. 80 75

Acute radiation enteropathy is usually self-limited and rarely requires surgical intervention. Chronic radiation enteropathy may occur months, years, or decades after treatment. Patients may present with crampy abdominal pain, diarrhea, or cachexia or may present acutely with bowel obstruction or fistula. The bowel and its mesentery are shortened, and mucosal ulceration and submucosal fibrosis are present. The vasculature of the bowel is markedly compromised by progressive endarteritis. Ideally, nutritional support should be given and surgery performed electively. Regardless of presentation, both large and small bowel must be evaluated for concurrent problems. At surgery, resection and restoration of continuity of the gastrointestinal tract is optimal management. Recurrent obstruction and fistulae are real risks, and optimal management is resection of bowel damaged by radiation and anastomosis using bowel spared from irradiation. However, if the patient is unstable or necessary dissection and mobilization of the bowel judged too morbid, bypass of the affected loop is acceptable. Occasionally, only diversion of the bowel by enterostomy is possible.
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PMID:Surgical management of radiation enteropathy. 192 57

This study describes, in 6 patients with a flat small intestinal mucosa and splenic atrophy, a particular lesion of the mesenteric lymph nodes termed "cavitation." In 4 women and 2 men with abdominal mass, intestinal obstruction, or suspected celiac disease-associated lymphoma, unusual pseudocystic lymph node lesions were found in the jejunal or jejunoileal mesentery. These lesions consisted histologically of a large central cavity occupied by hyaline-type material and surrounded by fibrous tissue and remnants of lymph node structures. There was no histologic evidence of malignant lymphoma or mesenteric panniculitis. Diffuse subtotal villous atrophy involving at least the jejunum was found in each case, together with unequivocal biological and morphological evidence of splenic atrophy, severe malabsorption, and a history of chronic or childhood diarrhea. HLA B8 or DR3, or both, was present in 4 of 4 cases; dermatitis herpetiformis was present in 1 case. An unequivocal mucosal response to a gluten-free diet was observed in 2 cases. Four patients died of cachexia or hyposplenism-related infections. We conclude that cavitation of mesenteric lymph nodes is an original feature which may be associated with splenic atrophy and a flat small intestinal mucosa; some of these patients may have celiac disease. Pathogenesis is unknown.
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PMID:Cavitation of mesenteric lymph nodes, splenic atrophy, and a flat small intestinal mucosa. Report of six cases. 674 13

Though many of the treatment strategies used in palliative care have never been subjected to clinical trial, it has been argued that advances in palliative care have outstripped those in many other specialties. This article is not a comprehensive review of therapeutic options, nor even of recent advances in this topic, but concentrates on the latest developments and controversies in the pharmacological treatment of four frequent and important symptoms: neuropathic pain, anorexia and cachexia, intestinal obstruction, and breathlessness. It is difficult to perform blinded, randomised trials in patients with advanced disease and poor performance status, yet it is these patients who may gain most from the adoption of new well evaluated treatment strategies.
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PMID:Palliative care. 751 47

Many factors can modify nutritional status in cancer patients, including cachexia, nausea and vomiting, decreased caloric intake or oncologic treatments capable of determining malabsorption. Cachexia is a complex disease characterized not only by a poor intake of nutrients or starvation, but also by metabolic derangement. Nausea and vomiting may limit the nutrient intake and are most often the consequences of oncologic treatments or opioid chronic therapy. Decreased caloric intake is considered to be one of the major causes of malnutrition, although the causes of anorexia remain unclear. Malabsorption is generally attributed to the consequences of oncologic treatments reducing the gastrointestinal absorption. Biochemical measurements and immunological tests may be not reliable indicators of nutritional status in cancer patients. Therefore, medical history, physical examination, estimates of daily oral intake, weight changes and an appropriate consideration of the nutritional requirements according to the stage of disease must still be assessed. The therapeutic approaches should be individualized and realistic. Whenever possible, oral nutrition is the method of choice, with due consideration for specific dietary needs. Nausea and anorexia can be reduced by different kinds of drugs. A careful decision based on good clinical judgement is necessary before deciding to start either enteral or parenteral nutrition, to avoid a useless, costly and difficult treatment. In choosing the route for administration of nutrients, availability of and access to a functioning gastrointestinal tract, compliance and comfort of the patient, gastrointestinal toxicity due to chemotherapy or radiotherapy fields, different costs, duration and place of treatment should be considered rather than the different capacity of parenteral versus enteral nutrition. However, postoperative periods after massive intestinal resection often require prolonged parenteral nutrition. The benefits of parenteral nutrition are not often demonstrable in patients with bowel obstruction. Different ethical aspects are presented. Flexibility in attempting to meet the nutrition needs of each patient is probably the most useful guide.
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PMID:Nutrition in cancer patients. 877 Dec 86

For the patient with advanced pancreatic cancer, curative strategies may not be appropriate, and palliative symptom management may be the best approach to patient care. Oncologists, who have been trained to concentrate on curing cancer, must shift focus when caring for these patients and consider palliative treatment strategies. Pancreatic cancer patients are multisymptomatic and may require treatment for such conditions as pain, bowel obstruction, anorexia, early satiety, cachexia, nausea and vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, ascites, and dyspnea, among others. These patients may be most effectively managed in a hospice care center, which can provide comprehensive care. Alternatively, new programs, such as the Cleveland Clinic Palliative Care Program, provide a unique setting for the patient with advanced cancer that integrates the qualities of hospice care into the acute medical care system.
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PMID:Palliative management of the patient with advanced pancreatic cancer. 888 9

This brief clinical report illustrates the case of a 50-y-old male patient with severe radiation-induced renal and intestinal fibrosis who received glutamine-enriched total parenteral nutrition (TPN). The patient had end-stage renal disease and, therefore, underwent a kidney transplant. In the postoperative course the patient developed signs of bowel obstruction and cachexia. He received two courses of glutamine-enriched TPN before he underwent surgery for small bowel stenosis. Postoperatively, the patient received a third course of glutamine-enriched TPN. During the patient's hospital course the following indexes were monitored: patient's weight, serum concentrations of protein, albumin, and trialglycerol. Intestinal permeability was assessed with the lactulose-mannitol sugar test (L-M test). We measured changes in the patient's weight and the L-M test. We hypothesize that glutamine-enriched TPN may have been beneficial in the hospital course of this critically ill patient and may have influenced the patient's intestinal function and permeability.
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PMID:Brief clinical report: glutamine-enriched total parenteral nutrition in a patient with radiation-induced renal and intestinal fibrosis. 897 27

We reported the kind of symptoms and how they could be palliated in terminally ill patients at home based on our experience of about 9 years. Cancer pain, which was the most frequent symptom, appeared in 67 among 126 patients receiving home care, and it could be effectively controlled with morphine; no patient returned to the hospital because of aggravation of pain. Very few patients stayed in the hospital and never returned home due to uncontrollable pain. Home parenteral infusion was done for 63 patients who were unable to eat or drink because of peritonitis carcinomatosa or cancer cachexia. High fever in the tumor mass was controlled by glucocorticoid hormone, and ascites was drained continuously when the patients suffered from abdominal distension. From analysis of the cases in which home care was interrupted or those in which patients were unable to transfer to home care, symptoms that were difficult to palliate at home were nausea caused by bowel obstruction, acute symptoms (bleeding, disturbance of consciousness, and so on), and dyspnea. But if the patients and family are eager for home care and an adequate medical support system is in place, home care may be possible despite these symptoms.
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PMID:[How to palliate the symptoms of terminally ill patients at home]. 898 19

Octreotide is an extremely useful compound for palliative care physicians. It appears to be active in a number of different pain states and may be given by the spinal and intraventricular route. Its actions in reducing gut motility and secretions make it a valuable adjunct in the management of inoperable bowel obstruction. The same actions make it a potent antidiarrheal agent. Octreotide will often succeed where other antidiarrheal agents fail. Its ability to reduce gut secretions has led to its use in the treatment of fistulae. It has also been proposed as a useful drug in the management of cachexia and ascites. Most of the existing evidence is based on small numbers of case reports and further larger trials are necessary.
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PMID:The palliative effects of octreotide in cancer patients. 1127 2


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