Der Chirurg; Zeitschrift für alle Gebiete der operativen Medizen
-
Almost 16 million Germans are treated annually in an emergency room (ER). Most patients are seen in a specialty ER and only 10-20% of all hospitals have a centralized ER facility. ⋯ It remains unclear whether the implementation of specialized ER physicians is more cost-effective than centralized specialization. However, it appears reasonable to centralize all ER resources, to optimize the workflow using electronic patient charts and order entry sets and to incorporate the general practitioner into the treatment of simple medical problems.
-
Review
[Challenges in the organization of investigator initiated trials: in transplantation medicine].
Transplantation medicine offers multiple translational questions which should preferably be transferred to clinical evidence. The current gold standard for testing such questions and hypotheses is by prospective randomized controlled trials (RCT). The trials should be performed independently from the medical industry to avoid conflicts of interests and to guarantee a strict scientific approach. A good model is an investigator initiated trial (IIT) in which academic institutions function as the sponsor and in which normally a scientific idea stands before marketing interests of a certain medical product. ⋯ Clinical scientific advances to improve evidence are an enormous challenge when performed as an IIT. However, academic sponsors can perform (international) IITs when certain rules are followed and should be defined as the gold standard when scientific findings have to be established clinically.
-
Despite significant progress the therapy of peritonitis remains challenging. With a mortality of up to 20% peritonitis is a predominant cause of death due to surgical infections. An early and efficient source control combined with effective antibiotic therapy and modern intensive care and sepsis therapy are definitive for the outcome and prognosis of secondary peritonitis. ⋯ An operative revision should be performed only on demand. The antibiotic therapy should begin with a broadly calculated empirical therapy and should later be adapted to microbiological findings. The therapy of sepsis requires standardized and state of the art intensive care.
-
Infection or injury, including surgical procedures, induces an inflammatory response of the host organism. This immune response must be finely tuned and precisely regulated, because deficiencies or excesses of the inflammatory response cause morbidity and shorten the lifespan. Activated receptors of the innate immune system (pattern recognition receptors, PRRs), which recognize pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs) including injured tissue-associated intracellular proteins (alarmins), lead to an exaggerated immune response. ⋯ Besides increased numbers of regulatory T cells there is a shift from a phenotype of inflammatory Th1 cells to an antiinflammatory phenotype of Th2 cells characterized by the production of interleukin-10. Key mediators of sepsis are HMGB1, MIF and complement factor C5a. With the identification of central pathomechanistic events, e.g. amplification of the coagulation, complement and inflammation cascades, immune dysbalance and neuroimmunomodulation via the cholinergic anti-inflammatory reflex, the opportunity now exists to apply these insights to the development of new and novel therapeutics aimed at modulating rather than inhibiting the systemic host response to infection.
-
The use of prophylactic perioperative antibiotic therapy if indicated could successfully and safely prevent surgical wound infections. The current guidelines (S1) for prophylactic perioperative antibiotic therapy of the Study Group of the Scientific Medical Associations (AWMF) of 2004 was replaced by a recommendation of the study group of the Paul-Ehrlich-Gesellschaft for Chemotherapy (PEG) in 2010. ⋯ Indications and choice of antibiotic agent depend on specific risk factors of the patient and the operation performed. The aim of this article is to describe the current recommendations of the PEG for general and visceral surgery.