In recent years, efforts are being made to provide palliative care to patients with chronic diseases other than malignant neoplasms with unfavorable prognosis, including patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In this group of patients, both the quality of life and the prognosis are poor. Unfortunately, patients do not receive proper care, even though progressive COPD causes nearly as many deaths as lung cancer.
The suffering of those dying from COPD is no less than that of those dying from cancer. The main problems are: shortness of breath, coughing, fatigue, depression, as well as emotional and psychosocial problems. The needs of patients with severe COPD are essentially “palliative”, so the main emphasis is on the quality of the ending life. It should be emphasized that palliative care does not only mean proper treatment of somatic symptoms. Patients require a holistic, multidisciplinary approach to implementing a model of care focused on the needs of the patient and his loved ones.