Medizinische Klinik, Intensivmedizin und Notfallmedizin
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Med Klin Intensivmed Notfmed · May 2019
Review["Terminal" dehydration : Differential diagnosis and body of evidence].
Dehydration in palliative care patients can be associated with increased morbidity and mortality and is nevertheless therapeutically controversial. This article provides an overview of possible causes of dehydration at the end of life and places special emphasis on "terminal" dehydration in the dying. Empirical attitudes of healthcare professionals and persons concerned (patients and relatives) as well as evidence-based findings on "terminal" dehydration are elucidated and the limitations are described. Finally, it is concluded that the appropriate detection of the mode of dehydration (including its underlying pathophysiology) as well as the clinical evaluation of the "reversibility" of the symptoms after fluid therapy, is of central importance in establishing the indications for clinically assisted hydration (CAH).
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Med Klin Intensivmed Notfmed · May 2019
Review[Airway management in intensive care and emergency medicine : What is new?]
In acute respiratory insufficiency, oxygenation and/or ventilation support by mechanical ventilation is an integral part of intensive care and emergency medicine. Effective airway management is essential to prevent hypoxic complications during the securing of the airway. This includes for example the recognition of difficult airways and adequate pre-oxygenation. ⋯ A tracheostomy is often performed for long-term ventilation. It is still unclear which patients benefit from an early tracheostomy. Usually the bed-side percutaneous dilatation tracheostomy technique is used, which is often performed under bronchoscopic guidance.
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Med Klin Intensivmed Notfmed · May 2019
Review[Decision-making support in Intensive Care to facilitate organ donation : Position paper of the Ethics Section and the Organ Donation and Transplantation Section of the German Interdisciplinary Association of Critical Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) in collaboration with the Ethics Section of the German Society of Medical Intensive Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine (DGIIN)].
Injuries, especially traumatic brain injury, or specific illnesses and their respective sequelae can result in the demise of the patients afflicted despite all efforts of modern intensive care medicine. If in principle organ donation is an option after a patient's death, intensive therapeutic measures are regularly required in order to maintain the homeostasis of the organs. These measures, however, cannot benefit the patient afflicted anymore-which in turn might lead to an ethical conflict between dignified palliative care for him/her and expanded intensive treatment to facilitate organ donation for others, especially if the patient has opted for the limitation of life-sustaining therapies in an advance directive. ⋯ The aid described can help mitigate ethical conflicts as to the extent of intensive care treatment for moribund patients, when organ donation is a medically sound option. NOTE: Gerald Neitzke und Annette Rogge contributed equally to this paper and should be considered co-first authors.