UV-Therapy in Spa medicine

Abstract: Institut für Medizinische Balneologie und Klimatologie der Universität München Introduction In Germany there are about 300 specially checked towns which are permitted to advertise as a SPA. Most of them are signed by a leading "Bad" in their city name for instance Bad Bentheim Bad Füssing or Bad Waldsee. About 8 million people spend in average 20 days per year in these Spas among them 2 million patients. The special therapeutical target of Spa medicine (a therapy which nearly is unknown in USA) is not a curative repair of a short lasting sickness but a 3-4 week exercise (rehabilitation) of still working systems to compensate as much as possible a long lasting and further on existing impairment. The Spa therapy is a combination of different hydrotherapeutical physiotherapeutical electric-therapeutical and ergotherapeutical treatments as well as diets and other actions. One of those therapeutical actions is UV-irradiation: the patients are ordered to stay outside as much as possible. Prescribing UVR the doctors have to weigh benefits and risks. Effects of UV-exposures The risks of UV-exposure (expressed in incidence and mortality by melanoma) are quite low (1) in Germany (fig. 1) comparing it to other risks of life (fig. 2). Therefore the questions what will happen from diminishing the ozone layer by even 15 % (that means an increase of solar radiation at a maximum of 10 %) ... hl

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