Özet:

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to show that the place of death of patients who died due to lung cancer, shifted to the palliative service, after the establishment of the palliative care service in our hospital. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a 4-year retrospective cross-sectional study at the Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Training and Research Hospital between 2017 and 2020. Patients who were diagnosed with lung cancer and died in the hospital during the study period were included in the study. Demographic data of the patients, comorbidities, laboratory values, changes in hospital location, respiratory support (invasive and noninvasive mechanical ventilation, oxygen), medical treatments, places of death and at most four causes of death were recorded from hospital mortality data. Data were summarized by descriptive analysis. Results: During the study period, 15,552 patients were hospitalized due to lung cancer and the number of patients who died from these patients was determined as 1896 (12%). Of the 1896 patients who died, 44% (n=834) had their first hospitalization in palliative care, and only 19 of these patients were referred back to the intensive care unit. There was a statistically significant increase in hospitalization to the palliative service over the years (p<0.001). It was found that applications from external centers increased statistically over the years (p˂0.001). A statistically significant decrease was observed in the non-invasive mechanical ventilation and vasopressor treatment applied to the patients over the years (p<0.001). Conclusion: Effective use of palliative services will lead to a reduction in unnecessary aggressive treatments at the end of life, thus reducing the cost and effective use of intensive care beds. There is a need for studies to increase palliative care awareness that will help determine the country's health policy.

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