BMJ : British medical journal
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Meta Analysis
A quantitative systematic review of ondansetron in treatment of established postoperative nausea and vomiting.
To test the evidence for a dose-response with ondansetron for treatment of postoperative nausea and vomiting and to establish whether differences in efficacy between doses are of clinical relevance. ⋯ Further nausea and vomiting could be prevented with ondansetron compared with placebo in 25% of patients who had nausea or vomiting (number needed to treat, about 4). There was no evidence of a clinically relevant dose-response between 1 mg and 8 mg or a difference between ondansetron and either droperidol or metoclopramide in a limited dataset. A false impression of ondansetron's efficacy may arise because a quarter of all relevant published reports are duplicates, and reporting of study results is uncritical.
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(a) To assess the impact of HIV status (HIV negative, HIV positive, AIDS) on the outcome of patients admitted to intensive care units for diseases unrelated to HIV; (b) to decide whether a positive test result for HIV should be a criterion for excluding patients from intensive care for diseases unrelated to HIV. ⋯ Morbidity was higher in HIV positive patients but there was no difference in mortality. In this patient population a positive HIV test result should not be a criterion for excluding a patient from intensive care.