[Time used for outpatient tumor pain therapy]

The insufficiency of pain therapy for cancer patients is a frequent complained. One reason for this deficit may be the great amount of time required for the management of patients with far advanced diseases. The objective of this paper is the calculation of time for this therapy.

All relevant data on pain treatment of 126 patients were followed up in an anaesthesiology outpatient facility and their therapy was recorded retrospectively over a period of 52 months.

During a period of 18,798 observation days 1,634 pain therapy consultations were performed, on average 13 per patient (1 to 95). The mean duration of therapy was 149 days. The percentage of consultations at home was 46%, most of them (80%) were scheduled, the remaining 20% were emergency consultations that were immediately necessary, at night or on Sundays. Altogether, the mean time for therapy including travel time was about 7 h until the end of the therapy. Only 13.5% of patients died in a hospital.

Because of the great amount of time necessary for cancer pain therapy close collaboration of all physicians involved in analgesic/palliative care is essential. This requires a good basic knowledge of all colleagues about the specialties of cancer pain therapy as well as good commitment by the pain specialists.