Current Treatment Options in Neurology

, Volume 10, Issue 2, pp 77–85 | Cite as

Management of symptoms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Article
First Online:

Opinion statement

The mainstay of treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is management of symptoms. Health care providers involved in the care of ALS patients should be armed with the most current knowledge about symptomatic management of these patients so that an aggressive approach to controlling symptoms can be undertaken at the most appropriate time. Among the important modalities is noninvasive positive pressure ventilation, which has been shown to improve not only quality of life but also survival. Similarly, clinicians should consider earlier intervention with enteral feeding. Palliative care should begin soon after ALS is diagnosed.

Keywords

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Palliative Care Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Patient Enteral Feeding 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of NeurologyLouisiana State University Health Sciences CenterNew OrleansUSA

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