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Background: Sepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction due to a dysregulated host response to infection. Annually, sepsis leads to approx. 90.000 deaths in Germany. Risk factors include amongst others older age (>60), innate or acquired dysfunction of the immune system, and underlying chronic diseases of the lung, heart, liver, or kidneys. The manifestation of sepsis is a medical emergency, and patient outcomes depend on timely diagnosis and immediate treatment. In addition, vaccinations e.g., against pneumococci or influenza virus, are a highly effective public health tool to prevent the most common underlying infections that may lead to sepsis. However, a lack of public awareness for the relevance of vaccination and detecting sepsis as an emergency underlines the need for public health interventions that address these issues. SepWiss aims to evaluate the effects of a multimodal information campaign designed to address this lack of awareness among the risk population in Germany., Methods: SepWiss is an intervention at state level, consisting of a multimodal information campaign targeting risk groups in the German federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg (intervention region). Based on available evidence, various information formats were developed and implemented by outdoor advertising, social media, educational formats and through stakeholders' platforms, starting in August 2021. The control region comprises of the remaining 14 German federal states. We will analyze vaccination coverage (primary outcome), and sepsis knowledge, the ability to detect sepsis as an emergency, and attitude towards vaccination (secondary outcomes) amongst the risk population in a controlled before-after comparison. The implementation is accompanied by a mixed-method process evaluation., Discussion: SepWiss is the first project of its kind to evaluate a complex multi-faceted evidence-based information campaign with regards to the topics of vaccination coverage, and the importance of sepsis detection and prevention for the most vulnerable populations in Germany. Results will be valuable for informing further nationwide campaigns., Trial Registration: German Registry for Clinical Trials: DRKS00024475. Registered February 24th, 2021., Competing Interests: The authors declare that no competing interests exist within this study protocol and the funding received by the innovation fund., (Copyright: © 2024 Abels et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Purpose: Chronic flaccid paralysis of the facial nerve leads to permanent dysfunction of eye closure, problems with drinking and eating, and lack of emotional expression. Modern facial surgery can help those affected. An analysis of the development of facial surgery in Germany over time is presented., Methods: Nation-wide population-baes diagnosis-related case group (DRG) data of virtually all inpatients who underwent facial surgery for facial palsy between 2005 and 2019 were included. Binomial regression models for changes in surgery rates over time were calculated in relation to gender and treating specialty., Results: Between 2005 and 2019, there were 28,622 inpatient stays for facial surgery. Most surgeries were provided by otolaryngology (39%) and ophthalmology or dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery (20% each). The mean treatment rate was 2.33 ± 0.53 surgeries per 100,000 person-years. The surgery rate was highest for nerve reconstruction surgery (0.46 ± 0.15) and static sling surgery (0.44 ± 0.0.16). The greatest increase was seen in men for nerve surgery (3.9-fold; relative risk [RR] = 3.68; confidence interval [CI] = 3.18-4.26) and sling surgery (5.0-fold; RR = 4.25; CI = 3.38-5.33)., Conclusions: While nerve and sling surgery increased significantly over time, this was less true or not true at all for surgical techniques. Surgical rates and their change over time were greater in men, without explanation from the data., (© 2023. The Author(s).)