Feridas malignas

: caraterística e qualidade de vida

Abstract

Introduction: With the increasing of oncologic diseases there is also an increasing of the risk of intrinsic complications to these diseases, like malignant fungating wounds, being indispensable that the health professional know how to act face of this situation, since the approach to this wounds differs in some aspects from the approach of other chronic wounds. Methodology: So, emerged the need to develop this study which had the follow research question: “What are the characteristics of the oncologic patients with malignant fungating wounds in the hospitals of the Autonomous Region of Azores?” and as objective, characterize the oncologic patients with malignant fungating wounds in the hospitals of the Autonomous Region of Azores, as well as they quality of life. This study was based on a qualitative study, descriptive, involving participation of three subjects, occurring data collection between July 2013 and August 2014 Results: The data showed that those wounds are mostly ulcerative and irregular, incorporating either physical symptoms (pain, infection, odor, bleeding and itching) either psychosocial (change in body image and social isolation). The quality of life and the overall health of these patients, despite the problems and associated symptoms, is good, taking into account the questionnaire of quality of life EORTC QLQ-C30. Conclusion: As future studies it will be interesting to continue this work, in order to draw conclusions about prevalence and the influence of the characteristics of malignant fungating wounds in the quality of life in this region, it may also be interesting to add some itens in order to assess other questions related to this theme, well as introduce in educational plans formation in this area.

Date of Award	13 Mar 2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Fernando Mena Martins (Supervisor) & Manuel Luís Capelas (Co-Supervisor)