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Background: Hip and knee arthroplasty remain risk procedures for bleeding complications. The prevalence of preoperative anaemia prior to elective joint replacement is high. There are no standardized guidelines in Germany for the diagnosis and treatment of perioperative anaemia in elective hip and knee arthroplasty. The aim of this work, initiated by the "Perioperative Management" committee of the German Society for Endoprosthetics (AE), was to develop a treatment recommendation., Materials and Methods: A systematic review of relevant publications between 2010 and 2023 was conducted. Medline, the Cochrane Library, existing national and international guidelines, and recommendations from other professional societies were considered. A total of 38 relevant articles were identified. Questions with clinical relevance were prepared in advance by the committee, and these were answered after studying and evaluating the literature. Finally, a recommendation was determined by expert consensus using the GRADE system., Consensus: All patients scheduled for elective joint replacement should undergo preoperative diagnostics. Preoperative anaemia is a risk factor for increased mortality and the likelihood of transfusions; therefore, the cause of anaemia should be investigated preoperatively and treated accordingly. The administration of iron should be considered in diagnosed iron deficiency and can be done either orally or intravenously. Oral substitution therapy should be started 3 months preoperatively. Intravenous therapy requires less time, causes fewer side effects and should be administered 4 weeks preoperatively. Persistent iron deficiency anaemia despite substitution, anaemia due to chronic inflammation and renal anaemia may indicate the need for erythropoietin substitution., Competing Interests: Einhaltung ethischer Richtlinien. Interessenkonflikt: J.M. Reinke, P. Meybohm und P. Weber geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht. Für diesen Beitrag wurden von den Autor/-innen keine Studien an Menschen oder Tieren durchgeführt. Für die aufgeführten Studien gelten die jeweils dort angegebenen ethischen Richtlinien., (© 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Objective: The postdoctoral medical lecture qualification (Habilitation) represents the highest academic qualification in Germany, which is successfully completed by approximately 850 candidates in medicine and health sciences per year. However, there is only a limited number of respective academic positions available. In addition, structures in education and society have changed over the last years, challenging the importance of this specific German qualification. The aim of this study was to elicit the opinions of members of German habilitation committees concerning the requirements, processes and the overall importance of the postdoctoral medical lecture qualification. Furthermore we wanted to evaluate potential needs for reforms., Methods: The online survey was conducted asking for biographic parameters, subjective ratings and potential needs for reforms concerning the postdoctoral medical lecture qualification (PLQ)., Results: The PLQ was rated high in significance by 71.3 % of the committee members. According to the medical understanding of the Humboldt triad (research, teaching, patient care), research (94.3 %) and teaching (89.7 %) have been rated as the most important requirements for a PLQ. Asked for the motivation to undertake a PLQ, 91.0 % of the members gave the joy of doing research, 78.2 % the joy of teaching and 65.5 % better career prospects perspectives as their reason. The recognition of a Ph.D. degree as being equivalent to a German PQL was clearly rejected by the survey respondents (58.6 %: no equivalence). The majority is against the abolition of the German PLQ. However, there is a definite desire for reform, preferably concerning internal obstacles such as the dependence on full professors, more transparency in the PLQ process, but also the demand for a federal standard PLQ regulation., Conclusion: From the committee members' point of view the German PLQ has still a role to play and, despite controversy, is still regarded as a timely qualification. However, there is clear-cut evidence for local, national and international reforms in order to create equality of opportunity for the candidates and to open up suitable career options., (Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

The skin is the biggest organ of the human being and has many functions. Therefore, the healing of a skin wound displays an extraordinary mechanism of cascading cellular functions which is unique in nature. As healing and regeneration processes take place in all parts of the human body, this review focuses on the healing processes of the skin and highlights the classical wound healing phases. While regeneration describes the specific substitution of the tissue, i.e. the superficial epidermis, mucosa or fetal skin, skin repair displays an unspecific form of healing in which the wound heals by fibrosis and scar formation. The first stage of acute wound healing is dedicated to hemostasis and the formation of a provisional wound matrix, which occurs immediately after injury and is completed after some hours. Furthermore, this phase initiates the inflammatory process. The inflammatory phase of the wound healing cascade gets activated during the coagulation phase and can roughly be divided into an early phase with neutrophil recruitment and a late phase with the appearance and transformation of monocytes. In the phase of proliferation the main focus of the healing process lies in the recovering of the wound surface, the formation of granulation tissue and the restoration of the vascular network. Therefore, next to the immigration of local fibroblasts along the fibrin network and the beginning of reepithelialization from the wound edges, neovascularization and angiogenesis get activated by capillary sprouting. The formation of granulation tissue stops through apoptosis of the cells, characterizing a mature wound as avascular as well as acellular. During the maturation of the wound the components of the extracellular matrix undergo certain changes. The physiological endpoint of mammalian wound repair displays the formation of a scar, which is directly linked to the extent of the inflammatory process throughout wound healing., (Copyright © 2012 S. Karger AG, Basel.)