In recent years, high doses of morphine have come to be used to relieve pain in terminal cancer patients, but not all the patients are treated by this pain intervention method because of a poor understanding of terminal care. The authors have organized a terminal care confernce in order to solve this problem in our hospital.
The conference has been held 8 times over the past 18 months.
Cases of good pain control by high doses of morphine were demonstrated, and cancer pain control manuals were prepared for distribution to the medical staff.
After such activity, the total dosage of morphine in the hospital a year showed a sixfold increas.