[Aerobic endurance training for cancer patients]. / Aerobes Ausdauertraining für Krebspatienten.

With the increase in the number of patients who survive cancer, there is a growing need to attend to the physical and emotional effects of cancer and oncological treatment. Reduced physical performance, fatigue, nausea, weight gain, psychological distress, changes in body image, dependency, and reduced quality of life are some of the short- and long-term sequelae of cancer. We describe data from the literature about firstly the effects of aerobic exercise as an additive treatment for cancer patients, and about the feasibility of aerobic exercise secondly during oncological treatment, and thirdly in patients suffering from terminal cancer. The data from the literature support that exercise as an additive treatment may help to attenuate the physical limitations caused by cancer and oncological treatment and there by contribute to rehabilitation and quality of life of cancer patients. Feasibility of aerobic exercise has been demonstrated also for patients suffering from advanced cancer. Aerobic exercise has been shown to provide benefits to cancer patients. It enables these patients to recover their physical function and to return to an active lifestyle. Aerobic exercise seems to be an effective possibility to reduce sequelae of cancer and to increase quality of life.

[Splints in occupational therapy of the hand in an Austrian central hospital--current status]. / Die ergotherapeutische Schienenversorgung der Hand in einem österreichischen Zentralkrankenhaus--eine Bestandsaufnahme.

Ergotherapeutic splinting is essential in the treatment of diseases, injuries and innate deformities of the hand. However due to its high material and staff costs, a definitely diagnosed indication is a prequisite for prescription. A retrospective study was performed using the Krankenhausinformationssystem (KIS) to establish the total number of hand splints prescribed by the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation of the General Hospital of Vienna from 1/1992 until 8/1998, as well as referring doctors/departments and diagnoses leading to referral were recorded and descriptively evaluated. The total number of patients was 1972. 1236 (63%) of the cases were referred by surgical departments/branches, 410 (20%) by internal departments, 151 (8%) by the neurological department and 175 (9%) by other departments. The diagnosis leading to referral were rheumatoid arthropathies (542 = 26%), peripheral nerve lesions (458 = 22%), tendon lesions (201 = 10%), Dupuytren' contractures after surgery (184 = 8%), degenerative joint diseases (82 = 4%), conditions after fractures (55 = 2.5%), patients after amputations (50 = 2.3%), disorders of the central nervous system (53 = 2.5%), focus removals (40 = 2%) and tendovagintis (35 = 1.7%). The remaining 19% were referred due to surgical repositionings, soft tissue injuries, local infections and various other diagnoses. The majority of ergotherapeutic splintings was prescribed due to forms of rheumatic or rheumatoid diseases, peripheral nerve lesions as well as hand surgery. In this study documenting the clinical practice of a medical center was primarily aimed at providing the basis for further discussion of both factual and economic aspects of future developments in splinting.