fa پیامد درمان‌های حمایتی در افراد مبتلا به سرطان مری غیرقابل جراحی در استان گلستان مقاله پژوهشی Original Research Article <p>Background and Objective: Dysphagia is the most distressing problem in patients with advanced inoperable esophageal cancer. Palliative interventions like balloon dilation and stenting are used to improve quality of life and make patients enable to eat more comfortably. This study was designed to determine the outcome of palliative care in esophageal cancer patients referred to Gorgan and Gonbad gastrointestinal clinics, northeast Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on inoperable esophageal cancer cases during 2005-2006. Demographic data were collected during the procedure and cases were followed every month for six months. Improvement proportion was calculated with 95% confidence interval, to determine the rate of improvement. Survival analysis and Kaplan-Meier methods were used to estimate the duration of palliative care effectiveness. Results: We recruited 39 cases into the study. Male to female ratio was 1.6 to 1 and mean age was 67.5&plusmn; 13.7 years. Twenty two patients had grade 3 dysphagia and other 17 had grade 4 at the begining of the study. Dilation was the most preferred method (89.7%) and stenting was performed in 4 (10/3%) cases. Decreasing dysphagia score was not related to palliation method used or pathologic type of carcinoma but it was showed to be related to the age of the patients significantly. Mean survival was significantly different between 2 groups (with and without dysphagia improvement in first month of follow-up). Conclusions: Results of this study showed a lower survival rate after palliative care in advanced esophageal cancer cases, although dysphagia scores showed some improvement.</p> Key words: Esophageal cancer, Palliative care, Grading of dysphagia, Iran 57 64 http://journal.zums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-4-460&slc_lang=fa&sid=1 Shahryar Semnani شهریار سمنانی 5200319475328460060641 5200319475328460060641 No Dept of Gastroenterology, Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (GRCGH), Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Sima Besharat سیما بشارت s_besharat_gp@yahoo.com 5200319475328460060642 5200319475328460060642 Yes Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (GRCGH), Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Abbas Ali Keshtkar عباسعلی کشتکار 5200319475328460060643 5200319475328460060643 No Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (GRCGH), Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Jorn Marjani جرن مرجانی 5200319475328460060644 5200319475328460060644 No Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (GRCGH), Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran GHolam Reza Roshandel غلامرضا روشندل 5200319475328460060645 5200319475328460060645 No Golestan Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (GRCGH), Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran