Dor total nos doentes com metastização óssea

Total pain is a central concept in palliative care. We promote this study which goal was exploring the practical dimensions of that concept in a particular population of patients with bone metastases. The study is a simple descriptive, transversal and quantitative one, with an accidental sample, rationally selected, of 53 patients followed in one oncology unit. The goal was to describe Total Pain in patients with bone metastases, through the identification of the different associated problems.The main conclusions of this study are: bone pain is a somatic pain, sometimes with neuropathic traits, described through a large range of concepts and expressions; even a low or moderate level of pain, as that showed by the majority of patients, has important impact in the daily living activities, namely sleeping, humour, general wellbeing, walking and working; patients show significant physical limitations, with impact on simple activities like climbing stairs, walking, bending and kneeling down; anxiety and/or depression are present in less than 20% of the patients, although, in general, patients are more nervous, with memory problems and unsatisfied with their reactions to their illness. They express concerns and fear about death; there was no evidence of delirium; in general, these patients show evident signs of important social and spiritual suffering; the majority of these patients show important amount of suffering/total pain, depending on the impact that each of them attributes to the losses the illness produced in their lives.