Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift
-
The advances of modern medicine did not only result in prolongation of life expectancy, but also led to a shift from dying at home to dying in public institutions. In western countries most people die at advanced age in medical facilities. Hence, the question regarding the conditions, which should be provided by society and especially medicine, to allow terminally ill people to experience "good dying" is substantial. ⋯ Therefore, the attributes of "good dying" will be described from the perspectives of patients, family members and health care providers, which are discussed and examined in current medical-sociological research. These attributes can be illustrated on three dimensions: Quality of life at the end of life (e. g. pain relief, mental well-being), quality of dying (e. g. avoiding prolonged dying, autonomy, presence of relatives) and quality of health care at the end of life (e. g. patient-oriented health care, positive communication between health care providers and patients, availability of guidelines). Although the attributes of "good dying" are described in detail in the existing literature, further studies have to clarify the relevance and impact of these attributes as predictors of "good dying".
-
Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Aug 2015
Review[Implementation of therapeutic hypothermia into clinical practice].
Implementation of mild therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest into clinical practice is a continuing process. Although ILCOR recommendation was given in 2003, only 24% of the German hospitals reported the use of hypothermia in this setting in 2005. Growing evidence and most importantly the implementation of hypothermia into the guidelines led to a significant increase of acceptance of this therapeutic option leading to a user rate of 69% in 2009. ⋯ This strengthens the importance of guidelines in the process to implement new therapeutic options. However, although a recent study still promotes a strict target temperature management it questions the need for a markedly reduced target temperature of 33°C. It remains to be elucidated how this study will affect the daily routine in the hospitals and most interestingly how this study will change the coming guidelines in 2015.