Emergencies in Supportive and Palliative Care

Supportive and palliative care continues to evolve rapidly because of the increasing understanding of the pathphysiology of bodies under stress and the ability to intervene with less catabolic stress or other harms. This opens new ways of providing palliation for what were previously intractable problems. As such, there is a need to understand the role of focused history taking, careful physical examination, and the prognosis of the person. From this, the most appropriate support can to be considered which may, at tmes, include interventions to address the underlying cause of the symptom, not simply the symptom alone.