Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Mar 2010
Review[Interventional therapy of atrial fibrillation: possibilities and limitations].
Recently, significant progress has been made treating atrial fibrillation (AF) with catheter ablation emerging as an increasingly important technique. Electrical disconnection of the pulmonary veins (PV) is a widely accepted endpoint for interventional treatment of paroxysmal AF (PAF). According to the current guidelines, catheter ablation can be considered as a therapeutic option in patients who failed antiarrhythmic drug treatment for PAF. ⋯ In patients with PAF, catheter ablation has emerged as an established therapy also in comparison to antiarrythmic drug treatment. Recent studies have shown that catheter ablation for PAF is superior to antiarrhythmic drug treatment with regard to mid-term suppression of any atrial arrhythmia. Overall, catheter ablation for AF has still to be considered as a symptomatic treatment since evidence for beneficial effects with regard to more robust clinical endpoints such as death, rehospitalization and ischemic cerebral events are not yet available.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Mar 2010
Review[What degree of hypoxemia is tolerable for human beings?].
According to the literature, hypoxemia is considered to be severe when oxygen saturation (Sa O(2)) falls below 90 %. Frequently one can discover lower values without impairment of the patient. Especially patients with the obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS) will have frequent night time desaturations of significant duration below 50 % Sa O(2), but do still cope with their daytime jobs. ⋯ Indirect data suggest, that the critical number for the oxygen content is rather low and is estimated to be somewhere around 33 % of the normal value. These mechanism of hypoxia-resistance are hardly ever maxed out in patients on critical care units. Lack of knowledge of the above described mechanisms does frequently result in diseases like ARDS which frequently develops due to excessive ventilatory pressures and excessive inspired O(2) concentrations.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Feb 2010
Review[Microbiological monitoring of ventilator-associated pneumonia in an intensive care unit].
Ventilator-associated pneumonia is the most frequent nosocomial infection in intensive care units (ICU) and causes high mortality. Approximately 50% of all antibiotics in ICUs are administered for the treatment of respiratory tract infections. Prompt and appropriate antibiotic treatment is paramount for a favourable clinical outcome as any delay in diagnosis and treatment will result in increased mortality. ⋯ The majority of published studies favour surveillance cultures, because these can often predict the pathogens responsible for pneumonia and lead to timely administration of adequate antimicrobial therapy. Although the rationale behind this approach appears evident, the impact of surveillance cultures on clinical outcome as well as their cost effectiveness remains to be determined. Therefore, at this point, national and international guidelines do not recommend the routine use of surveillance cultures in mechanically ventilated patients but stress the need for larger, well designed clinical studies.
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Dtsch. Med. Wochenschr. · Dec 2009
Review[Thyroid carcinoma found incidentally after thyroidectomy: postoperative strategy].
Completion operations after thyroid surgery due to incidental postoperative diagnosis of thyroid cancer are indicated in differentiated thyroid cancer with tumor size > 1 cm, extrathyroidal invasion, multifocality, angioinvasion or metastases. By thorough preoperative clinical work-up of nodular goiter (ultrasonography, fine needle aspiration cytology the frequency of completion thyroidectomies are aimed to be less than 10% of all thyroid cancer operations. ⋯ Prophylactic central node dissection as part of the completion operation is reserved for papillary (PTC) and medullary carcinomas (MTC) but not for follicular cancer. Lateral node dissection is recommended in nodal-positive MTC and in PTC with more than 5 lymph node metastases in the central compartment.