Pneumologie
-
Because of the expected significant growth in the elderly population and respiratory diseases, the topic of "delegation of physician's duties" is of increasing importance to the German health-care system. In 2004 the German Respiratory Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Pneumologie und Beatmungsmedizin e. V. (DGP)) established the new profession: respiratory therapist. ⋯ However, this is not yet true for all the newly employed respiratory therapists. Only few of the new graduate respiratory therapists were awarded higher salaries. It is a strongly recommendation to the heads of medical departments and the human resources managers of hospitals that they should recognise the increased qualifications of nurses and physiotherapists who become respiratory therapists by appropriate remuneration.
-
Review Clinical Trial
[Time-adaptive mode, a new ventilation form for the treatment of respiratory insufficiency--a self-learning system].
Hypercapnic respiratory failure is usually caused by an overload of the respiratory muscles (respiratory pump). After treatment of the underlying disease, mechanical ventilation will achieve optimal treatment success and higher degrees of respiratory muscle unloading will improve the outcome in terms of lower PaCO (2) levels and improved exercise performance. Routinely assisted modes are being used for ventilation, where the patient has to trigger the ventilator with his effort. ⋯ Patient satisfaction was rated very good in 34 %, good in 45 % and non-gratifying in 21 % of cases ventilated with TA-mode. Consideration has to be given to the fact that patients previously had been receiving optimal ventilator treatment. The TA-mode is a self-learning system, capable of copying the patients own breathing pattern while awake, in order to achieve complete unloading of the respiratory muscles through controlled ventilation during a circumscribed period.
-
Smoking parents are the main source of passive smoke exposure in childhood. Only few studies have assessed the effect of maternal or paternal cigarette smoke exposure in childhood on the development and severity of COPD. ⋯ Maternal cigarette smoke exposure in childhood aggravates the COPD disease and predisposes the patient for a higher disease severity.