RESUMEN
The authors report a case of hypernatremia in a patient with a history of dementia. This case highlights the challenges and scope of taking care of such patients. It also highlights the hardships in diagnosing and caring for patients with inadequate documentation of past diagnoses and treatments.
RESUMEN
Superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome is an oncologic emergency of venous congestion due to impaired venous flow through the SVC to the right atrium, leading to potential hemodynamic instability. We report a case of a 78-year-old female patient with a non-symptomatic lung nodule that exhibited rapid growth from its discovery to an enlarging tumor impinging the SVC in less than one month. The short time span from computed tomography (CT) image of the tumor to oncologic emergency required our team to act quickly to identify the source of the tumor and halt its progression, utilizing a multidisciplinary team approach while dealing with a patient that executed their right of autonomy to refusal of care, thus focusing on management with palliative goals since SVC syndrome has a life expectancy of six months post-diagnosis.