[Communication Strategies in Dealing with Patients with Glaucoma]. / Kommunikationsstrategien im Umgang mit Glaukompatienten.

When patients with glaucoma meet doctors and their assistants in a doctor's office or a hospital all hope that this contact will be trouble-free, helpful, perhaps even happy and conducted in a constructive spirit. But this is not always the case. Words and gestures may accidently hurt or reject the patient. Often the communication results in harm instead of help and healing. For this reason, it is worthwhile to have a glimpse behind the curtain of the difficult interactions between people. The rules of communication in the medical context will help to facilitate the contact between doctors and patients. Verbal and non-verbal communication play an important role, for example in how to address the individual patient, as well as the timing and wording. Expertise in communication is a key qualification for medical professionals!

Study of 962 patients indicates progressive muscular atrophy is a form of ALS.

BACKGROUND: Progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) is clinically characterized by signs of lower motor neuron dysfunction and may evolve into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Whether PMA is actually a form of ALS has important consequences clinically and for therapeutic trials. We compared the survival of patients with PMA or ALS to analyze the clinical features that influence survival in PMA. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of patients with PMA (n = 91) or ALS (n = 871) from our ALS Center and verified survival by telephoning the families or using the National Death Index. RESULTS: In PMA, patients were more likely to be male (p < 0.001), older (p = 0.007), and lived longer (p = 0.01) than in ALS. Cox model analysis suggested that the risk of death increased with age at onset in both patient groups (p < 0.005). Upper motor neuron (UMN) signs developed in 22% of patients with PMA within 61 months after diagnosis. Demographic and other clinical variables did not differ at diagnosis between those who did or did not develop UMN signs. In PMA, the factors present at diagnosis that predicted shorter survival were greater number of body regions affected, lower forced vital capacity, and lower ALS Functional Rating Scale-Revised score. Noninvasive ventilation and gastrostomy were used frequently in PMA. CONCLUSION: Although patients with progressive muscular atrophy (PMA) tended to live longer than those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), shorter survival in PMA is associated with the same risk factors that predict poor survival in ALS. Additionally, PMA is relentlessly progressive, and UMN involvement can occur, as also reported in imaging and postmortem studies. For these reasons, PMA should be considered a form of ALS.

[Effect of hyperbaric oxygen on burns of various depths in animal experiments]. / Die Wirkung hyperbaren Sauerstoffs auf Brandwunden unterschiedlicher Tiefe im Tierexperiment.

In various diseases and injuries the application of hyperbaric oxygen is an additional measure of therapy using the oxygen physically dissolved in the plasma. This method is more and more applied in burn injuries. Some problems were studied in animal experiments. The treatment proved good in burns of different depths, as to spontaneous healing, histologic pattern, and integration of grafts.