Wiener klinische Wochenschrift
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Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. · Oct 1988
[Prognosis and documentation of the disease course in severe craniocerebral injuries].
35 survivors of severe head injury were consecutively admitted to the Neurological Department, University of Vienna for early rehabilitation. The outcome after a mean observation periods of 19 months was compared with clinical signs (best motor response, pupillary light reaction, pupil size) in the acute stage. The clinical signs were graded semiquantitatively. ⋯ Solely with respect to the items "orientation and memory function" and "emotions" of the neuropsychological rating scale was no significant correlation obtained with the clinical sign "best motor response" in the acute stage. Our results indicate that it seems possible to assess the outcome after severe head injury not only be means of the widely-adopted Glasgow Outcome Scale, but also using the Karnofsky Performance Status and our neuropsychological rating scale without any marked loss of reliability. The clinical signs - "best motor response" and pupillary light reaction - are excellent prognostic indicators of the long-term outcome after severe head injury.
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Paediatric intensive care medicine mainly involves infants during the neonatal period and, in particular, premature babies. 70% of the children on assisted ventilation at the paediatric hospital of Graz University in 1985 and 1986 were neonates. Older children needing mechanical ventilation comprised only 1.6% of the total number of patients at our paediatric hospital. ⋯ Otherwise when serving the needs of children beyond the neonatal period these units are mostly required by paediatric subspecialities (i.e. cardiology, burns unit etc.). In view of the small number of patients in this group a high-standard paediatric intensive care unit should be multidisciplinary and preferentially attached to a university hospital rather than a regional hospital so as to maximise experience in the management of these children and ensure optimal care.
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Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. · Jun 1988
[The status of managing the type I diabetic patient in Austria. Organization].
During the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Diabetes Association various diabetic centres presented their success and failure rates with respect to metabolic control and prevention of late complications in diabetic patients on a country-wide basis. The analysis revealed that only 30% of all type I diabetic patients are adequately controlled. ⋯ Despite the enormous improvement which has been achieved in the management of pregnant diabetic women, intensive specialized care is often commenced far too late. In rural areas, in particular, even conventional therapy is not fully implemented and late complications are, thus, inevitable.
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Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. · Sep 1987
[Can muscle relaxation prevent the development of pneumothorax in artificially ventilated newborn infants?].
A retrospective study was conducted on 37 ventilated newborn infants to find out whether muscle paralysis by pancuronium had prevented pneumothorax (pt) in those severely ill newborn infants. In the group of 21 newborns who developed pt, 17 (81%) had been paralyzed with pancuronium. ⋯ Since the newborns in both groups were equally severely ill (mean compliance of the respiratory system 0.48 +/- 0.17 ml/cm H20 in the group with pt, 0.38 +/- 0.12 in the group without pt), we assume that pancuronium was unable to prevent pt in ventilated premature and full-term newborn infants. We therefore caution against the use of pancuronium as a paralytic drug known to have deleterious side effects.