Palliative surgery is

surgical Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

intervention targeted to make a

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health c ...

’s

symptom Signs and symptoms are the observed or detectable signs, and experienced symptoms of an illness, injury, or condition. A sign for example may be a higher or lower temperature than normal, raised or lowered blood pressure or an abnormality showin ...

s less severe, thus make the patient’s quality of life better despite negligible impact on the patient’s survival. Palliative surgery focuses on supplying the greatest benefit to the patient using the least invasive intervention. Palliative surgery provides symptom relief and preservation of the quality of life in terminal disease states. The uses of palliative surgery can range from extensive debulking operations to less complex operations. The main purposes of palliative surgery are: evaluation of the extent of the disease, control of locoregional spread, control of a fungating tumour, discharge or haemorrhage , control of pain, surgical reconstruction or rehabilitation to improve quality of life.Feig, B.W. ''Principles of palliative surgery, in Handbook of advanced cancer care'', B.M. Fisch and E.D. Bruera, Editors. 2003, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.

References

{{reflist Surgery Palliative care