The teacher is here | Are “protective medical measures” advisable in clinical practice?

Welcome to follow the WeChat public account “TopMD” to learn more medical knowledge.

Tumor is the number one killer that threatens health. Its incurability and terribleness have caused many cancer patients to have great mental and psychological disorders. For us doctors, how to communicate with cancer patients and their families has become a very important and meaningful topic.

The medical mentor invited by TopMD is Professor Chen Keneng, a famous thoracic surgery expert in my country. What does Professor Chen think about this issue? Are "protective medical measures" advisable?

Professor Chen Keneng’s opinion: Be sure to tell the patient the truth!

With the development of medicine, the treatment of tumors is no longer a single discipline. It is not a single surgical disease. It is definitely not like appendicitis or cholecystitis, where ordinary surgery can remove the diseased part and the patient will recover. Tumors are systemic diseases. Tumors manifest locally, but in fact the disease is in the whole body. Surgical oncology should be used to design treatment plans for patients.

Only by telling the truth to the patient can he or she participate well in the treatment, participate in the treatment strategy, and actively cooperate and complete the entire course of treatment.

Cancer is also a chronic disease. Once a cancer is diagnosed, it must be managed throughout the entire process. In the following life, cancer patients and their families will have to deal with cancer knowledge, oncology, cancer doctors, cancer hospitals, and cancer treatments.

Professor Chen Keneng during surgery

There is a saying: 30% treatment and 70% nursing. The joint efforts of the patient's family and the patient are permeated in this nursing. Doctors, patients and family members are a community of treatment. Among these 70% nursing, 90% comes from the participation of patients and their families.

So in this sense, if patients want to overcome tumors, they must participate, so the truth must be told to patients at the right time and in the right place, and no secrets must be kept. Please tell patients: actively undergo treatment, and the haze will eventually dissipate.

What is at the heart of communicating this issue with patients?

Please tell the patient: 1. It is not a serious problem, 2. Cooperate with the treatment, 3. The result will be good.

In this way, patients will not experience anxiety and panic. The more mysterious the information is kept from patients, the more worried and afraid they will be. After all, this is an era of information explosion, and there are many ways and channels to learn about a disease.

There may even be many problems during this process. For example, some family members, in order to hide the truth from the patient, do not take her to do a pathological examination. They do not even know the stage and type of the tumor, and blindly go to the doctor for surgery and chemotherapy, causing a lot of harm to the patient.

After all, the treatment methods for tumors of different stages and types are different, which will delay follow-up treatment, so the patient's participation is really crucial.

Don't treat patients as a cold noun. Cancer treatment and rehabilitation require the good participation of patients in all aspects, so that patients can return to normal life and work and achieve the ultimate goal of recovery. For details, please click on this video to watch.

[Disclaimer] This column is originally created by TopMD, and the copyright belongs to the producer. Any form of reprinting, editing and modification is prohibited without authorization, otherwise legal liability will be pursued. This video is for the purpose of medical popularization and cannot replace the doctor's face-to-face consultation. It is for reference only. This program is only for internal learning and communication among doctors.