The Necessity of Interoperability to Uncover the Full Potential of Digital Health Devices.

Personalized health care can be optimized by including patient-reported outcomes. Standardized and disease-specific questionnaires have been developed and are routinely used. These patient-reported outcome questionnaires can be simple paper forms given to the patient to fill out with a pen or embedded in digital devices.

[Clinical Treatment after Terrorist Attacks - Structures and Processes in Hospitals for terror-related Mass Casualty Incidents].

Due to several peculiarities the clinical treatment after terror-related mass casualty incidents (TerrorMASCAL) differs from handling a conventional MCI. For this reason, TerrorMASCAL situations should get attention as an own entity in hospitals emergency preparedness and response. Among other challenges hospitals surrounding the emergency area will have to deal with a large amount of non-triaged, non-treated and seriously harmed patients, some of them with unfamiliar and disfiguring injuries.

Interaction Empowerment in Mobile Health: Concepts, Challenges, and Perspectives.

In its most trending interpretation, empowerment in health care is implemented as a patient-centered approach. In the same sense, many mobile health (mHealth) apps are being developed with a primary focus on the individual user. The integration of mHealth apps into the health care system has the potential to counteract existing challenges, including incomplete or nonstandardized medical data and lack of communication, especially in the intersectional context (eg, patients, medical forces).

[Patient-centeredness].

Background: Patient-centeredness has developed into the guiding principle of healthcare policy over the last decade. However, its practical implementation is hindered by numerous problems and opposing interests.

Objective: To define and elucidate the term patient-centeredness, describe evidence-based measurement tools and outline recommendations for practical implementation.

Metadata Correction: Patient Empowerment During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Ensuring Safe and Fast Communication of Test Results: Implementation and Performance of a Tracking System.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/27348.].

Patient Empowerment During the COVID-19 Pandemic by Ensuring Safe and Fast Communication of Test Results: Implementation and Performance of a Tracking System.

Background: Overcoming the COVID-19 crisis requires new ideas and strategies for online communication of personal medical information and patient empowerment. Rapid testing of a large number of subjects is essential for monitoring and delaying the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in order to mitigate the pandemic's consequences. People who do not know that they are infected may not stay in quarantine and, thus, risk infecting others.

Reduced Rate of Inpatient Hospital Admissions in 18 German University Hospitals During the COVID-19 Lockdown.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused strains on health systems worldwide disrupting routine hospital services for all non-COVID patients. Within this retrospective study, we analyzed inpatient hospital admissions across 18 German university hospitals during the 2020 lockdown period compared to 2018. Patients admitted to hospital between January 1 and May 31, 2020 and the corresponding periods in 2018 and 2019 were included in this study.

Clinical Guideline for Treating Acute Respiratory Insufficiency with Invasive Ventilation and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation: Evidence-Based Recommendations for Choosing Modes and Setting Parameters of Mechanical Ventilation.

For patients with acute respiratory insufficiency, mechanical ("invasive") ventilation is a fundamental therapeutic measure to ensure sufficient gas exchange. Despite decades of strong research efforts, central questions on mechanical ventilation therapy are still answered incompletely. Therefore, many different ventilation modes and settings have been used in daily clinical practice without scientifically sound bases.

Mechanical Ventilation and Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygena tion in Acute Respiratory Insufficiency.

Background: Mechanical ventilation is life-saving for patients with acute respiratory insufficiency. In a German prevalence study, 13.6% of patients in intensive care units received mechanical ventilation for more than 12 hours; 20% of these patients received mechanical ventilation as treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Stalking a lethal superbug by whole-genome sequencing and phylogenetics: Influence on unraveling a major hospital outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Background: From July 2010-April 2013, Leipzig University Hospital experienced the largest outbreak of a Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase 2 (KPC-2)-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae (KPC-2-Kp) strain observed in Germany to date. After termination of the outbreak, we aimed to reconstruct transmission pathways by phylogenetics based on whole-genome sequencing (WGS).

Methods: One hundred seventeen KPC-2-Kp isolates from 89 outbreak patients, 5 environmental KPC-2-Kp isolates, and 24 K pneumoniae strains not linked to the outbreak underwent WGS.

Search for an animal model to investigate selective pulmonary vasodilation.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a life-threatening disease with a poor prognosis. Oral treatment with vasodilators is often limited by systemic hypotension. Inhalation of vasodilators offers the opportunity for selective pulmonary vasodilation.

Laryngeal tube suction II or endotracheal intubation for laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in a head down position: A randomised controlled trial.

Background: The laryngeal tube suction II (LTS II) is a supraglottic airway device (SAD) with a gastric drainage tube and enhanced seal properties as compared with other SADs. Therefore, its use has been proposed in situations with an elevated risk of aspiration.

Objectives: To compare the safety and efficacy of airway management and controlled mechanical ventilation when using either an LTS II or an endotracheal tube for laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

Effect of Sodium Selenite Administration and Procalcitonin-Guided Therapy on Mortality in Patients With Severe Sepsis or Septic Shock: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: High-dose intravenous administration of sodium selenite has been proposed to improve outcome in sepsis by attenuating oxidative stress. Procalcitonin-guided antimicrobial therapy may hasten the diagnosis of sepsis, but effect on outcome is unclear.

Objective: To determine whether high-dose intravenous sodium selenite treatment and procalcitonin-guided anti-infectious therapy in patients with severe sepsis affect mortality.

Two strategies for prevention of cytomegalovirus infections after liver transplantation.

Aim: To analyze differences in patients' clinical course, we compared two regimes of either preemptive therapy or prophylaxis after liver transplantation.

Methods: This retrospective study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of the University of Leipzig. Cytomegalovirus (CMV) prophylaxis with valganciclovir hydrochloride for liver transplant recipients was replaced by a preemptive strategy in October 2009.

Inhaled carbon monoxide protects time-dependently from loss of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction in endotoxemic mice.

Background: Inhaled carbon monoxide (CO) appears to have beneficial effects on endotoxemia-induced impairment of hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV). This study aims to specify correct timing of CO application, it's biochemical mechanisms and effects on inflammatory reactions.

Methods: Mice (C57BL/6; n = 86) received lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 30 mg/kg) intraperitoneally and subsequently breathed 50 ppm CO continuously during defined intervals of 3, 6, 12 or 18 h.

Initial Experience With a Percutaneous Approach to Redo Mitral Valve Surgery: Management and Procedural Success.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to report the anesthetic management and immediate procedural success in the initial 20 patients undergoing percutaneous transapical mitral valve replacement.

Design: Retrospective review of collected data.

Setting: University-affiliated heart center.

The effect of intraoperative administration of dexamethasone for PONV prophylaxis on perioperative blood glucose level in obese and normal weight children.

Background: The incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) can be reduced by dexamethasone. Single-dose administration may cause elevated blood glucose levels in obese adults. No data are available for children.

[Social aspects of emergency calls in the rescue service].

Background: Many missions in the preclinical emergency services seem to be triggered by false indications as defined by the Federal State Rescue Act. These emergency calls are often a result of or associated with social issues. Emergency rescue personnel are confronted with social problems and as a result often feel left alone with the problem.

[Mechanically circulatory support devices--management of typical emergencies].

The use of mechanically circulatory support devices (MCS) will become increasingly important as a therapy option in patients with end-stage heart failure, and emergency physicians will more frequently encounter MCS patients in the next few years. However, emergency management in MCS patients has not yet been standardized. In the following article, common MCS devices are presented and typical emergencies associated with MCS devices are discussed.

Hyperlactatemia is an independent predictor of mortality and denotes distinct subtypes of severe sepsis and septic shock.

Purpose: Current guidelines and most trials do not consider elevated lactate (Lac) serum concentrations when grading sepsis severity. We therefore assessed the association of different types of circulatory dysfunction regarding presence of hyperlactatemia and need for vasopressor support with clinical presentation and outcome of sepsis.

Methods: In a secondary analysis of a prospective observational multicenter cohort study, 988 patients with severe sepsis were investigated regarding vasopressor support, Lac levels, and outcome.