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Objective: To evaluate the symptoms of women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) during their last admission before death and analyze invasive palliative management administered in relation to symptom control and survival. Materials & Methods: A retrospective review of Israeli patients with EOC, primary peritoneal cancer (PPC) and tubal cancer, admitted to our department prior to death between 2008–2018. Basic palliative treatment was defined as administration of IV fluids, analgesics, oxygen, antiemetics, antibiotics and/or blood transfusions. Procedures regarded as invasive included: peritoneal or pleural fluid drainage; placement of an indwelling catheter, administration of total parenteral nutrition (TPN), chemotherapy and ventilation. Results: 82 patients were included. Most suffered from weakness and fatigue, gastrointestinal complaints, pain and shortness of breath. 34 patients (41.5%) required only basic palliative treatment to alleviate their symptoms; however, in 48 patients (58.5%) invasive interventions were needed. Patients treated with invasive procedures were younger at death by almost 9 years (mean age of 65.73 ± 9.5 vs. 74.78 ± 9.8; p = 0.001). There were significantly more women with platinum sensitive disease in the invasive interventions group compared to the basic palliative care (60.42% vs. 32.35%; p = 0.012). No survival difference was found between the groups from diagnosis to death, relapse to death, last chemotherapy to death and last admission to death. Conclusions: EOC patients suffer from high disease burden and multiple symptoms before death. We found that physicians tend to use more invasive care in dying younger patients. However, this aggressive treatment does not prolong survival. Futile treatments influencing quality of life should be avoided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To compare the accuracy of ultrasonographic, calculated, and clinical methods for the estimation of fetal weight (EFW) performed during active labor by residents.Methods: Parturients in active labor underwent prospectively EFW by 3 methods: ultrasonographic, clinical, and calculated (extrapolating EFW from a previous scan). Three different blinded residents evaluated each woman. Background variables were examined for their effect on the accuracy of each method. Comparison of the methods for the detection of macrosomia and small for gestational age (SGA) was also performed.Results: Among the 405 women recruited, the rates of accuracy of ultrasonographic, clinical, and calculated EFW (within ±10%) was 72.5, 74.3, and 71.1%, respectively. The correlation coefficient between the methods and actual birth weight (ABW) were 0.702-0.611 (using 7 Hadlock formulas), 0.649, and 0.622, respectively (all p < 0.001). By logistic regression, epidural analgesia was associated with higher and second stage of labor with lower accuracy of ultrasonographic EFW. For the detection of macrosomia, clinical (p < 0.001) and calculated EFWs (p = 0.035) were superior to ultrasonographic EFW. For the detection of SGA, ultrasonographic EFW was superior to calculated (p < 0.001) and clinical (p < 0.001) EFWs.Conclusion: All 3 methods performed by residents during labor correlated well with ABW. Clinical and calculated EFWs were superior for macrosomia detection, whereas ultrasonographic EFW was superior for SGA detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]