Dtsch Arztebl Int
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The PRISCUS list of potentially inappropriate medications (PIM) for the elderly was published in 2010 and is the first systematically constructed list of this type in Germany. The aim of the present study is to estimate the baseline prevalence of the prescribing of PIM, as defined by the PRISCUS list. ⋯ These data show that PIM were frequently prescribed to elderly persons in Germany before the PRISCUS list was published. Medications on the PRISCUS list are not necessarily absolutely contraindicated, and this study contained no information about the individual risk/benefit analyses that may have been carried out before these drugs were prescribed; thus, no conclusion can be drawn about the prevalence of inappropriate prescribing. Further research is needed to validate the PRISCUS list, which was generated by expert consensus, as a basis for therapeutic guidelines in geriatric medicine.
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The care of severely and multiply injured patients is an interdisciplinary challenge. The only existing German-language guideline up to now has been the S1-guideline issued in 2002 by the German Society for Trauma Surgery (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie, DGU). In this article, we present a new, comprehensive, evidence and consensus based S3-guideline for the treatment of severely and multiply injured patients in the pre-hospital and early in-hospital phases which has been developed with the aim of structural and procedural quality optimization. Its implementation should lower these patients' mortality and improve their quality of life. ⋯ This guideline can only improve outcomes if it is implemented in routine practice. Aside from the guideline itself, the DGU trauma network (www.dgu-traumanetzwerk.de) has issued a set of directions as an aid to its implementation.
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Many new antitumor drugs have been approved in recent years. Their side-effect profiles are distinct from those of older drugs, and their adverse effects are sometimes highly specific, particularly with respect to the skin. ⋯ The recognition and proper management of cutaneous adverse effects is an important part of treatment with new antitumor drugs.
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Some 40 000 lower limb amputations are performed in Germany each year, 70% of them in diabetics. About 80% of all major amputations may be preventable with the use of new interventional and vascular surgical procedures, particularly on the arteries of the leg and foot. We present the current state of the art in revascularization techniques and evaluate their usefulness for preservation of the lower limb. ⋯ Though the data are still sparse, the high reported rates of limb preservation imply that peripheral revascularization techniques can play a major role in the treatment of chronic critical limb ischemia (CLI). Therefore, these techniques are recommended without exception by the current guidelines.