Dtsch Arztebl Int
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Review
Recurrent breast cancer: treatment strategies for maintaining and prolonging good quality of life.
Recurrent breast cancer remains a challenge for interdisciplinary treatment even though new therapeutic options are available. ⋯ While locoregional recurrences of breast cancer should be treated with curative intent, breast cancer with distant metastases is currently not curable. It is treated with the intention of restoring and maintaining good quality of life and relieving symptoms due to the metastases, rather than prolonging survival.
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Review
Patient safety and error management: what causes adverse events and how can they be prevented?
Even in industrialized countries, health care is not as safe as it should be. The term "patient safety" denotes the non-occurrence of adverse events and the presence of measures to prevent them. ⋯ Three main strategies should be pursued to improve patient safety. A safety management system involving error reporting, learning from errors, and the fair exchange of information should be established in hospitals and in doctors' outpatient practices. An error management system should be implemented in which critical incidents are identified, reported, and analyzed so that similar events can be prevented, and measures for the prevention of critical incidents and errors should also be implemented and evaluated. Finally, whenever preventable adverse events do occur, the persons involved should take action to prevent further harm to the patient and other involved individuals.
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Diabetic retinopathy is a microangiopathy of the retina from which nearly all persons with diabetes eventually suffer. Two of its complications threaten the patient's vision: diabetic macular edema and proliferative diabetic retinopathy. ⋯ Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness among persons of working age in the industrialized world. Regular ophthalmological examinations, timely laser therapy depending on the stage of the disease, and close interdisciplinary cooperation are essential to prevent loss of vision.