End of Life Care | Specialist care | Palliative care for adult patients with neuromuscular disorders

Palliative care for adults with neuromuscular disorders
Session overview
Description
This session is aimed at specialists in palliative care including nurses, doctors and therapists. It may also be useful to GPs and community nurses supporting patients with neuromuscular disorders.

This session was reviewed by Derek Willis and Tracey Wills and last updated in August 2024.

By the end of this session you will be able to:

• describe the features of the neuromuscular disorders that an adult palliative care specialist will potentially come across in practice
• discuss the current practice for symptom control
• identify the issues/symptoms that such patients will have by the time their disease becomes palliative in nature

Before commencing this session you should consider looking at the following modules:

• e-ELCA 01 - Advance care planning
• e-ELCA 04 - Symptom management

A neuromuscular disorder (NMD) is a very broad term encompassing a range of conditions that impair the functioning of the muscles, either directly, being pathologies of the voluntary muscle.

There are over 60 different types of neuromuscular conditions, affecting just over 1 in every 1000 people.

This session discusses the features and palliative management of some of the more common NMDs, muscular dystrophies, which are a group of inherited genetic conditions which gradually cause the muscles to weaken, leading to an increasing level of disability.