Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Urological Care

Abstract

Patients receiving palliative care (PC) can present with or develop a host of urological needs or complications. These needs can include attention to sexual health, urinary incontinence, genitourinary bleeding, and urinary tract obstruction by benign, malignant, or urinary stone diseases. These varied conditions require that PC clinicians understand invasive and noninvasive medical, surgical, and radiation options for treatment. This article, written by a team of urologists, geriatricians, and PC specialists, offers information and guidance to PC teams in an accessible "Top Ten Tips" format to increase comfort with and skills around assessment, evaluation, and specialist referral for urological conditions common in the PC setting.

Keywords: dignity; fatigue; hematuria; individualized decision making; palliative urological care; quality of life; sexual intimacy; ureteral obstruction; urinary catheter; urinary incontinence.