Contexto: a esperança é um conceito que ajuda a pessoa a lidar com a crise de uma forma mais eficaz. A evidência científica evoca a sua importância no âmbito dos cuidados paliativos, defendendo que esperanças realistas ajudam a pessoa a viver o tempo que resta da melhor forma possível. Objetivos: analisar o índice de esperança de uma amostra de doentes submetidos a quimioterapia e compreender a influência de algumas variáveis sociodemográficas, clínicas e religiosas sobre o mesmo. Metodologia: estudo observacional, transversal, do tipo exploratório, descritivo-correlacional, numa amostra de 92 doentes oncológicos em quimioterapia. Utilizou-se o Herth Hope Index-PT e os dados foram analisados pelo programa Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, versão 18. Resultados: os inquiridos apresentam índices de esperança elevados (média=29.61 pontos). O tempo de diagnóstico e o tempo em quimioterapia influenciam a esperança (p < 0.01 e p < 0.05, respetivamente). As relações encontradas são fracas e inversas. Conclusão: o avanço do tempo parece fazer diminuir a esperança dos doentes em quimioterapia, o que vem sustentar a necessidade de promovê-la continuamente. A informação adequada às necessidades da pessoa e objetivos realistas atuam como promotores e ajudam a pessoa a restaurar o sentido da vida.

Summary Introduction:?Accidents involving the face have increased incidence in the last four decades. The medical literature refers to the increase in motor vehicle collisions and urban violence as the major causes of injuries, especially in young individuals. Objective:?Raise the epidemiological profile of 222 patients with facial fractures at the Hospital Santo Antonio from 2004 to 2009. Method:?Case study with retrospective analysis of records of patients diagnosed with facial fractures. Several variables were considered: gender, age, occupation, education level, origin, location and number of bones involved, etiology, and mean hospital stay of patients. Results:?The male sex predominated with 178 cases (80.1%), the average age was 29.6 years, 86 (38.73%) had a steady job. Unmarried 178 cases (80.18%). Primary school predominated among the patients, 74 (33.34%), and most live in the city of Blumenau, 175 (78.82%). The assault was primarily responsible for the surgical indication in 79 cases (35.58%), involving a bone in 193 cases (86.9%). The main bone involved was the mandible in 90 cases (40.54%). The average length of stay was 2.5 days. Conclusions:?The epidemiological profile of 222 patients is an individual male, aged 20-29 years old, unmarried, low education and employee. The most prevalent etiology was assault, involving a bone, the mandible being the most involved bone.

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Primary Sjögren syndrome (SS) is a chronic inflammatory systemic autoimmune disease with a high risk of malignancy development, namely, lymphoproliferative neoplasms. Few studies also reported a high risk of solid cancers; however, the coexistence of primary SS and pancreatic cancer has been rarely described. In this paper, we aim to describe a case of a 59-year-old woman who was an active smoker with sicca symptoms and symmetrical polyarthritis and was diagnosed with primary SS two years before the development of metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Despite institution of chemotherapy, the patient succumbed to the malignancy. Besides that, we explore the link between primary SS and solid cancers including the main predictors of malignancy and the role of primary SS as a paraneoplastic syndrome. Patients with primary SS should be closely monitored for malignancy, not only for hematological cancer, but also for solid tumors. Further research is necessary to understand which are the predictors of cancer proliferation in primary SS patients.