Skin and wound care at end-of-life: A systematic review

The structure and functional capacity of the skin decline at the end of life. Despite being a normal physiological process, it does not mean that these changes should be accepted as inevitable. Clinicians’ responsibility is to care for individuals to the end of their life, including palliation of symptoms, and the provision of optimal skin care. Even (and maybe particularly) in the last hours, the care for the skin should have a prominent place. Guidelines and scientific recommendations about skin and wound management at the end-of-life are scattered and insights into the fundamentals of skin care in a palliative care setting are lacking. The Swedish Centre for Skin and Wound Research is systematically reviewing the scientific and practice literature to  identify and synthesize skin care interventions in end-of-life patients. The aim is to identify key recommendations and to translate them to clinical practice. This project is conducted in close collaboration with the Skin Integrity Research Group (SKINT) at Ghent University (Belgium).