Systemic therapy (somatic medicine)

This article is about the physical treatment of the whole organism to fight a disease. For the independent psychotherapeutic concept, see Systemic Therapy .

In somatic medicine, the term systemic therapy refers to the treatment of the entire organism to combat a disease; treatment at the site of the disease is called local therapy .

The term is used where therapeutic measures affect the entire organism. This can be the enteral or parenteral supply of drugs , but also dietary treatment, the use of physical-therapeutic measures or naturopathic applications such as climatic therapy .

Examples

The generalized purulent peritonitis requires the operational treatment using, if necessary, multiple laparotomy and removal of pus foci, at the same time is effected by means of systemic therapy antibiotics .

The prostate is - depending on the expansion - locally by means of transurethral resection or prostatectomy (removal of the prostate) treated as systemic therapy come antiandrogenic substances used. Similar treatment concepts exist for many malignant diseases such as breast cancer or ovarian cancer .

Many diseases ( diabetes mellitus , arterial hypertension, etc.) can only be treated systemically because they are systemic diseases and therefore not accessible to local therapy.

This article is about a health issue. It is not used for self-diagnosis and does not replace a diagnosis by a doctor. Please note the information on health issues !