%0 Journal Article
%T Pediatric palliative care
%A Franca Benini
%A Marco Spizzichino
%A Manuela Trapanotto
%A Anna Ferrante
%J Italian Journal of Pediatrics
%D 2008
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1824-7288-34-4
%X The incidence of incurable disease and disability has been increasing in the Western world in recent years. Medical and technological advances have certainly reduced neonatal and pediatric mortality rates, but they have also led to a longer survival of patients with severe and potentially lethal diseases, without always succeeding in curing them, thereby increasing in absolute terms the number of pediatric patients with incurable diseases who continue to suffer from life-threatening problems.Children with life-limiting and life-threatening illnesses that lead to death or a life of severe disability deserve a profound cultural and organizational reappraisal of how we care for them when the aim of care is not to make them recover, but to offer the best possible "health" and "quality of life", despite their disease.Infants, children and adolescents with life-limiting and life threatening illnesses need support and long-term care in a palliative setting.The World Health Organization defines palliative care for children as "the active total care of the child's body, mind and spirit, ... also involves giving support to the family. It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease" [1]. Pediatric palliative care is concerned with the medical, psycho-social, spiritual and economic needs of patients and their families, providing complex patient care solutions involving all aspects of the health care system, from hospital to hospice, to community, to home, and it involves an interdisciplinary team of caregivers.It is important to draw a distinction between palliative care and terminal care: the latter refers to looking after children and their parents during a time closely related to their death (within weeks, days or hours). Terminal care is not palliative care, but palliative care includes terminal care [1].The gross misconception relating to this difference heavily influences the errors made i
%U http://www.ijponline.net/content/34/1/4