PURPOSE We reviewed all available literature on early stage prostate cancer treatment in which pretreatment serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels were used to stratify patients. We determined if any conclusions could be reached regarding the optimal therapy of this disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS A MEDLINE search was conducted to obtain all articles in English on prostate cancer treatme...

Since the summer term 2009 the study project "Patientensicherheit - Der klinische Umgang mit Patienten- und Eingriffsverwechslungen sowie Medikationsfehlern" (Patient Safety - the clinical handling of patients - and mistaking of procedures as well as medication errors) is offered within the Modellstudiengang Medizin. Seminars on patient safety in Germany so far mainly address trained doctors an...

This study proposes and simulates an inverse treatment planning and a continuous dose delivery approach for the Leksell Gamma Knife (LGK, Elekta, Stockholm, Sweden) which we refer to as "Tomosurgery." Tomosurgery uses an isocenter that moves within the irradiation field to continuously deliver the prescribed radiation dose in a raster-scanning format, slice by slice, within an intracranial lesi...

During the last two decades there has been a substantial improvement in the overall outlook for patients suffering from ulcerative colitis. Nevertheless, many patients continue to experience severe attacks of this disease, and the mortality from these attacks is often very high. Thus Gallagher et al. (1962) stated that nearly two-thirds of their patients with "fulmin-ating" attacks of colitis d...

BACKGROUND The prognostic value of the clinical findings elicited in the patient presenting with sciatica is unknown. AIM To investigate whether history and physical examination findings can predict outcome. DESIGN OF STUDY Prospective study of prognostic factors. SETTING A sample of primary care patients with sciatica. METHOD Short-term favourable outcome was registered as improvement ...

PURPOSE To improve the management of all hospital admissions with head injuries, including mild and moderate by developing a clinical pathway and a head injury team. METHODS A head injury team was set up to take over the care of all admissions with head injury and to manage appropriate referrals and discharges. A key role was to facilitate communication between the different services involved...

During the first three quarters of the twentieth century, radical mastectomy was an accepted and common procedure in the management of patients with early stage cancer of the breast. After a lifetime of thinking about and working with patients with early-stage breast cancer, Vera Peters presented and published, in the mid-1970s, a retrospective historical case-control study that demonstrated th...

BACKGROUND Prior studies describing the treatment of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis with injections of bone marrow concentrate have provided encouraging results. The relationship between the cellular dose contained within the bone marrow concentrate and efficacy of the treatment, however, is unclear. In the present study we describe clinical outcomes for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis in rela...

Local ablation therapy is considered as a conventional treatment option for patients with early stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Although radiofrequency (RF) ablation is widely used for HCC, the use of cryoablation has been increasing as newer and safer cryoablation systems have developed. The thermodynamic mechanism of freezing and thawing used in cryoablation is the Joule-Thomson effect....