Symptomatic therapy
Symptomatic therapy ( synonym : symptom-related therapy ) is the name given to medical measures that relate to combating existing symptoms of an illness. In contrast to the sub-area of “palliative therapy” , it does not matter whether the cause of the disease is accessible to curative measures or not, but the transitions when using both terms are fluid.
The treatment of individual symptoms can be of great importance because in this way the development of serious complications can be prevented in appropriate cases. Untreated symptoms (e.g. pain ) affect people's quality of life. Palliative treatment can provide relief. However, cure will only be achieved by treating all symptoms with curative treatment.
Examples for explanation
fever
If the body temperature rises to dangerously high values ( fever ) as part of a bacterial inflammation that can be treated with antibiosis suitable for testing (e.g. pneumonia ) , then, in addition to antibiosis, which are considered curative, the symptomatic administration of antipyretic drugs is indicated to avoid unnecessary damage would be triggered by the increase in temperature.
poisoning
In the context of poisoning, for example with drugs that is acting respiratory depressant symptomatically in the Emergency Medicine an artificial respiration (the respiratory failure would result in death of the patient) indexed until the body of the patient the drug has decayed or excreted that adequate respiratory function is spontaneously possible again.
a toothache
In the case of toothache caused by tooth decay , the administration of a pain reliever is the “symptom-related” therapy, regardless of the dental measure used to treat the carious tooth.
Diseases with a benign course
In the case of diseases with a generally benign course (e.g. banal viral infections) , for the treatment of which no specific therapy is available, “symptomatic therapy” is recommended. Here z. B. Pain and fever suppressed until healing has progressed so far that the patient's quality of life is no longer significantly impaired.
Individual evidence
- ↑ H. Abdolvahab-Emminger: Exaplan. Urban & FischerVerlag, 2003, ISBN 3-437-42461-0 , p. 1637. (books.google.de) .
- ↑ Symptomatic therapy. (www.medizin.uni-koeln.de) ; Accessed Jan. 30, 2009.
- ^ A. Thierbach: Lexicon of emergency medicine. Springer, 2002, ISBN 3-540-65798-3 , pp. 70ff., (Books.google.de) .
- ↑ H. Sandholzer and others: Practice trainer for general medicine. Schattauer Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-7945-2513-2 , p. 105, (books.google.de) .