To assure quality and progression of surgical intensive-care therapy appropriate equipment is mandatory to ensure documentation and quality-control. In our hospital data processing of any information concerning the patients treated in the intensive-care unit has become part of the daily routine. This paper presents and discusses the underlying concept.
Development of the hybridoma technique has made the identification of several new tumor antigens possible. Although it was hoped that they would be more tumor-specific, none of these markers are found exclusively in tumor or in serum of tumor patients. Compared with carcinoembryionic antigen (CEA) and liver function tests, the roles of these markers (CA 19-9, CA 125, CA 15-3) were prospectively evaluated in 115 patients with colorectal liver metastases. Patients were classified according to tumor volume (T1 less than 25%, T2 25-75%, T3 greater than 75%), and the extension of infiltration (solitary/multiple/diffuse; unilateral, bilateral). Patients with benign liver or biliary disease served as a control group (n = 63). Overall sensitivity was 87% for *1, 50% for *2 and 38% for *3, with a significant correlation with tumor size. CEA serum levels were elevated in 88% of all patients. CA 19-9 was less sensitive: positive in 59%. Because of some complementary elevations, the combined use of CEA, CA 19-9 and CA 125 raised sensitivity to 94%. CA 19-9 and LDH could be useful for confirmation because of their higher specificity; however, the specificity of CEA rose to 93% on using a cut-off of 10 ng/ml instead of 3 ng/ml. The results indicate that CEA and CA 19-9 as well as liver function tests are helpful for preoperative staging in conjunction with imaging procedures before liver resection or regional chemotherapy.
Adjust preclinical treatment is an inevitable compound of polytrauma-management. Instantaneously applied expert therapy of the traumatic shock and acutely performed diagnosis of the pattern and dignity of injuries often are crucial for the patients' outcome. Precise documentation of the first phase of treatment thus gains importance for clinical investigations to come and for questions put scientifically. Applying data processing with data input through an optical mark reader a standardized encounter sheet, that proved to be usable as a checklist, has been developed in our hospital for the emergency-rescue-team. Being simple to use and handy to fill out it serves as a clinical record as well as a means for direct data input to a personal computer. The encounter sheet is presented in this paper together with first results of the application in daily routine.
Following the proposal of Oedekoven we investigated the method of continuous and rapid skin enlargement by dynamic traction (which we named the CORSET-method) at the border of wounds, applied through elastic silicon rubber bands. Since March 1992 we operated more than 20 patients. By means of the "rubber bands" mentioned above soft tissues can be stimulated to grow, that is to say increase the area of skin that had to be treated with transplants priorily in order to close soft tissue defects following a compartment-syndrome or septic complications in the abdomic wall following operations in the abdomen. Applying the CORSET-method there is no risk of inflammation or soft tissue damage caused by the operation itself.
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