[The German Thorax Registry: Implementation of an Established Tool of Perioperative Health Care Research].

The collection of clinical treatment data in registry databases is an important aspect of health services research. It allows for a critical evaluation of the safety, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of clinical treatment concepts in large patient populations. The findings of registry research represent real-world patients and treatment structures as they are not limited by strict inclusion criteria or unrealistic conditions as applied in prospective clinical trials.

Major incidents and complications in otherwise healthy patients undergoing elective procedures: results based on 1.37 million anaesthetic procedures.

Background: Improved anaesthesia safety has made severe anaesthesia-related incidents, complications, and deaths rare events, but concern about morbidity and mortality in anaesthesia continues. This study examines possible severe adverse outcomes or death recorded in a large national surveillance system based on a core data set (CDS).

Methods: Cases from 1999 to 2010 were filtered from the CDS database.

The German Critical Incident Reporting System for Anesthesiology: CIRSains.

Background: In June 2010, the Helsinki Declaration was passed. As a result, an online nationwide critical incident reporting system named CIRSmedical Anaesthesiology (CIRSains) was implemented in Germany. The aim of the article is to evaluate CIRSains for practicability and to provide solutions to the problems detected during evaluation.

[Professional image of anesthetists in the general public. Influence of provision of information and previous experience with the discipline].

Background: The profession of the anesthetist in Germany includes the disciplines anesthesia, intensive care, emergency and pain medicine. Despite the versatility and competence of the profession, patients do not appear to have recognized anesthesiology as a medical discipline or anesthetists as medical doctors.

Aim: This study was conducted with the aim of estimating how previous experience and information gathered before contact with the anesthetist for premedication have influenced and changed the perception of patients with regards to the professional fields and the characteristics of anesthetists.