Authors

1 PhD Candidate, Nursing Faculty, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant professor, Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Department of Psychiatric Nursing, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Nursing Faculty, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Associate Professor, Deputy of Cancer Research, Cancer Institute of Iran, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Background
Malignant wound causes a devastating physical and psychological condition in cancer patients. This study presents a review which can provide better insights into the life of cancer patients living with malignant wound. The aim of this meta-synthesis was to analyze and synthesize findings from qualitative studies of the lived experiences of patients with malignant wound.
Materials and Methods
This meta-synthesis followed the Sandelowski and Barroso’s guideline and was designed to synthesize findings from previous qualitative studies. Variety of biomedical archives were searched, including PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO, Cochrane library, and ProQuest and Persian data bases such as Magiran, SID, Iran.doc, IranMedex, and  recently published articles and books on the lived experience of persons living with malignant wound were reviewed. In this article, the literature searches covering from January,1, 1990 to march,15, 2016 resulted in eight relevant studies which fulfilled the inclusion criteria for the review.
Results
Findings from all these studies were categorized into three main themes: "distortion of lived body", "symptomatic suffering", and "compatible living with wound". Our findings showed that the meanings of patients’ experiences living with malignant wound are important for the construction of multidisciplinary palliative care in these individuals.
Conclusion: Gaining insights from analysis of qualitative studies is integral issue for developing new palliative care services for patients with malignant wound.

Keywords