Der Anaesthesist
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Pharmacogenetics deals with hereditary factors which influence the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of drugs leading to individual diverse reactions. Also in anesthesiology differences in the pharmacogenetics of patients can lead to relevant alterations in the pharmacodynamics of drugs. ⋯ The study results presented here emphasize that these days knowledge on pharmacogenetics should not be missing in modern induction of anesthesia. In the future a blood sample could enable physicians to identify pharmacologically relevant markers. And these could guide the decision on the prescription of drugs and their appropriate dose, in order to achieve the lowest risk of side effects and the highest effectiveness of the active substance.
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Transcranial cerebral oximetry is a non-invasive method to support the estimation of the balance in cerebral oxygen metabolism status during interventional neuroradiological procedures. The simple data acquisition can lead to errors by oversimplification in interpretation of the displayed data. To avoid fatal mistakes of the acquired data the complex interactions of the examined substrate with physiological and pathophysiological interactions have to be critically judged as well as the procedural approach and methodological limitations.
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Patient data management systems (PDMS) enable digital documentation on intensive care units (ICU). A commercial PDMS was implemented in a 25-bed ICU replacing paper-based patient charting. The ICU electronic patient record is completely managed inside the PDMS. It compiles data from vital signs monitors, ventilators and further medical devices and facilitates some drug dose and fluid balance calculations as well as data reuse for administrative purposes. Ventilation time and patient severity scoring as well as coding of diagnoses and procedures is supported. Billing data transferred via interface to the central billing system of the hospital. Such benefits should show in measurable parameters, such as documented ventilator time, number of coded diagnoses and procedures and others. These parameters influence reimbursement in the German DRG system. Therefore, measurable changes in cost and reimbursement data of the ICU were expected. ⋯ The implementation of the PDMS showed only small effects on documentation of reimbursement-relevant parameters which were too small to set off against the total investment. The method itself, a long-term follow-up of different parameters proved successful and can be adapted by other organizations. The quality of results depends on the availability of long-term parameters in good quality. No significant influence of PDMS on mortality was found.