Carmen Manciuc 1, Cristina Nicolau 1, J. L. Prisacaru 1, Carmen Dorobăţ 1
1 The Infectious Diseases Clinic of Iaşi, HIV/AIDS Department
Abstract
Introduction. Terminal stages of AIDS must benefit from special attention and care for both patients and their relatives. Objectives. Establishing a team and protocols of palliative care for these patients. Material and method. The retrospective study of case report forms of patients who died of AIDS in the Infectious Diseases Clinic of Iaşi. In the department of HIV-infected patients of the Infectious Diseases Hospital of Iaşi, within an interval of 3 years (2007-2009), there were 28 deaths, with an average of 9 patients per year. Most of them died of multiple organ failure, in the final stage of AIDS (10 cases), meningeal coma (5 cases) or respiratory failure during the terminal pulmonary pneumocystosis TB (13 cases). The palliative therapy was conducted throughout the hospitalisation of the terminal stage. The patients who survived longer required psychological support from admission until they lost their state of consciousness – they were 23 in number, with a duration of psychological palliation from 2 to 32 days. Conclusions. Palliative care, in cases of terminal AIDS disease, must be conducted by a team including specialists in infectious diseases, intensive care, psychologists and it also addresses the patients’ families.