Surgical Palliative Care describes the principles and practice of surgery in the context of palliative and supportive care. Surgery is often considered too invasive to be useful in palliation and clinicians instinctively turn to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and other drugs. Surgery, with increasingly minimal access techniques, may be simpler and less invasive than other treatments and produces excellent palliation. Indeed, most types of surgery are not curative and the aim of this book is to alert all concerned with palliative care to the usefulness and appropriateness of a surgical option. The text is divided into two sections; the first dealing with general issues, varying from quality of life measurement to spirituality, and the second illustrating their application in different specialties of surgery ranging from neurosurgery to urology. The book ends with a challenge to surgeons to change their perspective from curative surgery, in terms of simply cure or failure, to improvement in quality of life and relief of symptoms. Aimed primarily at palliative medicine and pain consultants, this book will also appeal to surgeons who increasingly need to know more about palliative care.

This book describes the principles and practice of surgery in the context of palliative and supportive care. Surgery is often considered too invasive to be useful in palliation and clinicians instinctively turn to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and other drugs. Surgery, with increasingly
minimal access techniques, may be simpler and less invasive than other treatments and produces excellent palliation. Indeed, most types of surgery are not curative and the aim of this book is to alert all concerned with palliative care to the usefulness and appropriateness of a surgical option.
The book is made up of two sections. The first deals with general issues, varying from quality of life measurement to spirituality, and the second section illustrates their application in different specialties of surgery ranging from neurosurgery to urology. The book ends with a challenge to
surgeons to change their perspective from curative surgery, in terms of simply cure or failure, to improvement in quality of life and relief of symptoms. Aimed primarily at palliative medicine and pain consultants, this book will also appeal to surgeons who increasingly need to know more about
palliative care.

In this text, Dunn and Johnson present a collection of international articles addressing the evolving function of palliative surgery, including the unique role of palliative surgeons, in what has historically been recognized as surgical palliation of otherwise uncontrollable symptoms...I believe this text would be a useful reference for all healthcare professionals caring for individuals with potentially life-threatening disease.