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Palliative and Supportive Care Case of the Month Archive​

Doctors, students, and others with interest in palliative and supportive care can browse our extensive archive of cases. The UPMC Palliative and Supportive Institute shares monthly cases on areas such as managing pain, dealing with grief, and other palliative care topics.

View current cases here.

View archived cases below.

If you have questions or insights about a case, feel free to contact the institute.

  • Palliative Management of Chronic Diarrhea
    December 2015
  • The Use of Narrative Medicine in Existential Distress
    November 2015
  • An older woman with progressive decline in function: What are those weird movements?
    October 2015
  • Treatment of Renal Failure in Patients Who Have Cirrohis?​​
    August 2015
  • 80 Year Old Patient with Advanced Gastric Cancer: When are Medical Interventions Considered "Futile"?
    July 2015
  • Scratching the Surface of the Treatment of Pruritus in Palliative Care
    June 2015
  • When Being "Down in the Dumps" Isn't Depression
    May 2015
  • A Middle Aged Woman with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma in the ICU - Is Her Prognosis Good or Bad?
    April 2015
  • Paclitaxel-Associated Acute Pain Syndrome: A Novel Neuropathy
    March 2015
  • Opioid-induced Hyperalgesia
    February 2015
  • When Pain Doesn't Go Away: Palliation of Post-Herpetic Neuralgia
    January 2015
  • How Long Is Too Long? Complicated Grief
    December 2014
  • Mythical Methadone
    November 2014
  • Emotion vs. Fact
    October 2014
  • BPH as a Hospice Diagnosis?
    September 2014
  • Second Line Anti-emetic Therapies for Refractory Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting
    June 2014
  • The Crying Child
    May 2014
  • Legacy Projects at the End of Life
    April 2014
  • Evaluation and Management of Opioid Induced Constipation
    March 2014
  • "Are You Depressed?" Screening for Depression in Palliative Care
    February 2014
  • Talking About Prognosis
    January 2014
  • Comfort Measures for a Patient with a Recent Tracheostomy
    November 2013
  • What is Palliative Home Care?
    October 2013
  • Late Complications of Head and Neck Cancer and Its Treatments
    September 2013
  • Anti-epileptic Medicines for Pain Management
    July 2013
  • Urinary Retention, the Sometimes-Neglected Medication Side Effect
    June 2013
  • Refractory Constipation in a Patient with New Malignant Spinal Cord Compression
    May 2013
  • Reconsidering Mirtazapine: Making the Most of a Side Effect Profile
    March 2013
  • Pearls and Pitfalls of Transdermal Fentanyl Administration
    February 2013
  • Choosing an Antipsychotic for the Treatment of Delirium
    January 2013
  • Is She Hospice or Isn’t She?
    December 2012
  • Chondroradionecrosis
    November 2012
  • Use of Transmucosal Immediate-Release Fentanyl (TIRF) Products
    October 2012
  • How to Legally Prescribe Controlled Substances
    September 2012
  • Treating Fibromyalgia
    August 2012
  • Post Inguinal Herniorrhaphy Groin Pain
    July 2012
  • Cutaneous Myiasis: Maggot Infestation of a Malignant Wound
    June 2012
  • The Decision to Discontinue a Left Ventricular Assist Device
    May 2012
  • Addiction in Palliative Care: Leaving the Door Open for the Best Possible Outcome
    April 2012
  • Radiation Induced Xerostomia and Pain
    March 2012
  • Palliative Care Across the System
    February 2012
  • When Rotating to Methadone is a Good Idea
    January 2012
  • Role of Outpatient Palliative Care for Cancer Patients
    December 2011
  • He's Got Renal Failure—Better Order Dilaudid Instead of Morphine!
    November 2011
  • Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST):
    Translating the Goals of Seriously Ill Patients into a Medical Order
    July 2011
  • The Use of Topical Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs for Pain in Palliative Care
    June 2011
  • Lymphedema—A Common Problem Without an Easy Solution
    May 2011
  • Are We Really Helping Patients by Recommending They Go on Disability?
    April 2011
  • What to Do After the Patient is Made CMO
    February 2011
  • Transdermal Granisetron for Refractory Nausea and Vomiting
    January 2011
  • Is It Ok for Physicians to Cry?
    October 2010
  • Resolving Family End of Life Conflicts in a Dying Pediatric Patient
    September 2010
  • He Must be Incompetent Because He is Crazy
    August 2010
  • Risk Assessment in Treating Non-cancer Pain
    July 2010
  • Working Through Moral Distress
    June 2010
  • "You're Not Going to Let Her Starve to Death, Are You?"
    May 2010
  • When are BPH Symptoms Not BPH? The Importance of Good History Taking
    April 2010
  • Ethical Principles in Action: Autonomy, Veracity, and Justice…Oh My!
    March 2010
  • Predicting Prognosis in the Intensive Care Unit
    February 2010
  • Gabapentin for Refractory Chemotherapy-induced Nausea and Vomiting
    January 2010
  • Hospice Eligibility and Re-certification for Dementia Patients
    November 2009
  • Patient preference for learning survival estimates: Balancing hope with realism
    October 2009
  • Dealing with intractable conflict about treatments at the end of life: A harm reduction strategy
    September 2009
  • Spirituality as a Factor in Coping with a Terminal Illness
    August 2009
  • Dying Like Jacob: End-of-Life Decisions with the Orthodox Jewish Patient
    July 2009
  • Weighing the risks and benefits of low-molecular weight heparin in palliative care
    June 2009
  • Treatment of acute pain in a patient taking buprenorphine for addiction
    May 2009
  • Establishing medical decision-making capacity
    April 2009
  • Pain vs. Suffering
    March 2009
  • Methylnaltrexone for Opioid Induced Constipation
    February 2009
  • Metoclopramide-Induced Gynecomastia
    January 2009
  • Huntington’s disease: how can palliative care help?
    December 2008
  • Using Cultural-Specific Music to Alleviate Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression
    November 2008
  • Palliative Sedation Therapy
    October 2008
  • Trapped Inside a Failing Body
    September 2008
  • When Depression Isn't Depression: Understanding Hypoactive Delirium
    August 2008
  • The Differential Diagnosis of Opioid Poorly-Responsive Cancer Pain
    July 2008
  • "Do you have something stronger than this dilaudid?" The case for opioid rotation
    June 2008
  • Music Therapy
    May 2008
  • "Am I really going to have to live like this?": The Role of Octreotide in Patients with Persistent Nausea and Vomiting after Venting Gastrostomy Tube Placement
    April 2008
  • Denying the Obvious: How to Approach Patients Who Delay Medical Care for Advanced Breast Cancer
    March 2008
  • What Is That Guy Thinking? When the Attending Is the Person Who Needs the Intervention
    February 2008
  • When Death is Expected, Where Should it Happen?
    December 2007
  • A Patient/Family-Centered Palliative Care Approach to Decision-making in the Medical Intensive Care Unit
    November 2007
  • Hospice and Palliative Care at 40
    September 2007
  • Suicide Attempt in a Terminally Ill Patient
    August 2007
  • Opiate Dosing for Respiratory Distress
    July 2007
  • "Where is God?"
    June 2007
  • What to Do When There’s Nothing More to Do
    May 2007
  • Music Therapy for a Terminally Ill ICU Patient
    April 2007
  • Giving Prognostic Information
    March 2007
  • "I didn’t know dementia was a fatal disease. Why didn’t anybody tell me before?"
    January 2007
  • The Blessings of Palliative Care
    November 2006
  • The Foundling
    October 2006
  • The Power of Listening
    September 2006
  • When a Lot of Small Things Make a Big Difference
    August 2006
  • Request for a Hastened Death
    July 2006
  • Dying at Home: Honoring the Patient or the Family?
    June 2006
  • The Family Says Not to Tell
    May 2006
  • "If That Was My Mother": The Danger of Quick Labeling
    April 2006
  • Her Way or No Way
    March 2006
  • When is Medical Care Futile?
    November 2005
  • Music Therapy in Palliative Care
    October 2005
  • The Family That Doesn’t “Get It.”
    September 2005
  • "When pain gets worse despite escalating narcotic doses"
    April 2005
  • Talking to Children About Life Limiting Illness
    March 2005
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