Pharmaceutical management of acute radiation dermatitis in the German speaking radiation oncology community.

BACKGROUND: Radiation dermatitis (RD) remains the most common side effect in radiation therapy (RT) with various pharmaceutical options available for prevention and treatment. We sought to determine pharmaceutical management patterns of radiation dermatitis among radiation oncology professionals. METHODS: We conducted a survey on RD among the German-speaking community of radiation oncologists inquiring for their opinion on preventive and therapeutic pharmaceutical approaches for acute RD. RESULTS: 244 health professionals participated. Dexpanthenol lotion is the agent most widely used both for prevention (53.0%) and treatment (76.9%) of RD, followed by urea (29.8%) for prevention and corticosteroids (46.9%) for treatment. A wide range of substances is used by participants, though the overall experience with them is rather limited. 32.5% of participants do generally not recommend any preventative treatment. 53.4% of participants recommend alternative medicine for RD management. While seldomly used, corticosteroids were considered most effective in RD therapy, followed by dexpanthenol and low-level laser therapy. A majority of participants prefers moist over dry treatment of moist desquamation and 43.8% prescribe antiseptics. CONCLUSIONS: Pharmaceutical management of RD in the German-speaking radiation oncology community remains controversial, inconsistent, and partially not supported by evidence-based medicine. Stronger evidence level and interdisciplinary consensus is required amongst practitioners to improve these care patterns.

Risk assessment, surveillance, and nonpharmaceutical prevention of acute radiation dermatitis: results of a multicentric survey among the German-speaking radiation oncology community.

PURPOSE: Radiation dermatitis (RD) represents one of the most frequent side effects in radiotherapy (RT). Despite technical progress, mild and moderate RD still affects major subsets of patients and identification and management of patients with a high risk of severe RD is essential. We sought to characterize surveillance and nonpharmaceutical preventive management of RD in German-speaking hospitals and private centers. METHODS: We conducted a survey on RD among German-speaking radiation oncologists inquiring for their evaluation of risk factors, assessment methods, and nonpharmaceutical preventive management of RD. RESULTS: A total of 244 health professionals from public and private institutions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland participated in the survey. RT-dependent factors were deemed most relevant for RD onset followed by lifestyle factors, emphasizing the impact of treatment conceptualization and patient education. While a broad majority of 92.8% assess RD at least once during RT, 59.0% of participants report RD at least partially arbitrarily and 17.4% stated to classify RD severity solely arbitrarily. 83.7% of all participants were unaware of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Consensus exists on some lifestyle recommendations like avoidance of sun exposure (98.7%), hot baths (95.1%), and mechanical irritation (91.8%) under RT, while deodorant use (63.4% not at all, 22.1% with restrictions) or application of skin lotion (15.1% disapproval) remain controversial and are not recommended by guidelines or evidence-based practices. CONCLUSION: Identification of patients at an increased risk of RD and subsequent implementation of adequate preventive measures remain relevant and challenging aspects of clinical routines. Consensus exists on several risk factors and nonpharmaceutical prevention recommendations, while RT-dependent risk factors, e.g., the fractionation scheme, or hygienic measures like deodorant use remain controversial. Surveillance is widely lacking methodology and objectivity. Intensifying outreach in the radiation oncology community is needed to improve practice patterns.

The level of postoperative care influences mortality prediction by the POSPOM score: A retrospective cohort analysis.

BACKGROUND: The Preoperative Score to Predict Postoperative Mortality (POSPOM) assesses the patients' individual risk for postsurgical intrahospital death based on preoperative parameters. We hypothesized that mortality predicted by the POSPOM varies depending on the level of postoperative care. METHODS: All patients age over 18 years undergoing inpatient surgery or interventions involving anesthesia at a German university hospital between January 2006, and December 2017, were assessed for eligibility for this retrospective study. Endpoint was death in hospital following surgery. Adaptation of the POSPOM to the German coding system was performed as previously described. The whole cohort was divided according to the level of postoperative care (normal ward vs. intensive care unit (ICU) admission within 24 h vs. later than 24 h, respectively). RESULTS: 199,258 patients were finally included. Observed intrahospital mortality was 2.0% (4,053 deaths). 9.6% of patients were transferred to ICU following surgery, and mortality of those patients was increased already at low POSPOM values of 15. 17,165 patients were admitted to ICU within 24 h, and these patients were older, had more comorbidities, or underwent more invasive surgery, reflected by a higher median POSPOM score compared to the normal-ward group (29 vs. 17, p <0.001). Mortality in that cohort was significantly increased to 8.7% (p <0.001). 2,043 patients were admitted to ICU later than 24 h following surgery (therefore denoted unscheduled admission), and the median POSPOM value of that group was 23. Observed mortality in this cohort was highest (13.5%, p <0.001 vs. ICU admission <24 h cohort). CONCLUSION: Increased mortality in patients transferred to high-care wards reflects the significance of, e.g., intra- or early postoperative events for the patients' outcome. Therefore, scoring systems considering only preoperative variables such as the POSPOM reveal limitations to predict the individual benefit of postoperative ICU admission.

Validation of the Preoperative Score to Predict Postoperative Mortality (POSPOM) in Germany.

BACKGROUND: The Preoperative Score to Predict Postoperative Mortality (POSPOM) based on preoperatively available data was presented by Le Manach et al. in 2016. This prognostic model considers the kind of surgical procedure, patients' age and 15 defined comorbidities to predict the risk of postoperative in-hospital mortality. Objective of the present study was to validate POSPOM for the German healthcare coding system (G-POSPOM). METHODS AND FINDINGS: All cases involving anaesthesia performed at the University Hospital Bonn between 2006 and 2017 were analysed retrospectively. Procedures codified according to the French Groupes Homogènes de Malades (GHM) were translated and adapted to the German Operationen- und Prozedurenschlüssel (OPS). Comorbidities were identified by the documented International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) coding. POSPOM was calculated for the analysed patient collective using these data according to the method described by Le Manach et al. Performance of thereby adapted POSPOM was tested using c-statistic, Brier score and a calibration plot. Validation was performed using data from 199,780 surgical cases. With a mean age of 56.33 years (SD 18.59) and a proportion of 49.24% females, the overall cohort had a mean POSPOM value of 18.18 (SD 8.11). There were 4,066 in-hospital deaths, corresponding to an in-hospital mortality rate of 2.04% (95% CI 1.97 to 2.09%) in our sample. POSPOM showed a good performance with a c-statistic of 0.771 and a Brier score of 0.021. CONCLUSIONS: After adapting POSPOM to the German coding system, we were able to validate the score using patient data of a German university hospital. According to previous demonstration for French patient cohorts, we observed a good correlation of POSPOM with in-hospital mortality. Therefore, further adjustments of POSPOM considering also multicentre and transnational validation should be pursued based on this proof of concept.