Palliative surgery
Under a palliative operation is meant an operation that is performed to the patient to provide an improvement in the situation, without being able to thus cure his disease. See palliation .
Examples:
- In advanced cancer , the tumor can cause an intestinal obstruction ( ileus ) that can no longer be surgically removed because the tumor is so large or spread out that it can only be completely removed if vital structures are damaged. In such cases, the surgeon can create an artificial anus ( enterostoma ), which sits above the intestinal obstruction, so that the patient is not tormented by the typical symptoms of an intestinal obstruction, but the intestinal contents are discharged to the outside via this anus praeter .
- If the intestinal obstruction is just behind the stomach or in the gastric exit area, a gastroenterostomy may be an option . During this operation, an artificial connection is created from the stomach to the intestinal sections further away from the mouth (aborally) so that the constriction is bypassed.
- Masses in the brain with increased intracranial pressure or tumors in the spinal cord area can use neurosurgical procedures to reduce symptoms that limit the quality of life.
- Another example are certain congenital heart defects, the malformation of which cannot be corrected, but where palliative operations create a circulatory situation that allows survival with the best possible quality of life (see pediatric cardiology ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erich Donauer: Neurosurgical interventions. In: Eberhard Aulbert, Friedemann Nauck, Lukas Radbruch (eds.): Textbook of palliative medicine . Schattauer, Stuttgart (1997). 3rd, updated edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-7945-2666-6 , pp. 598-606; here: p. 600.
