Plos One
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This study aimed to determine whether insertion of an intrathecal catheter following accidental dural puncture (ADP) in obstetric patients can reduce the incidence of post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) and the requirement of a therapeutic epidural blood patch (TEBP). This was also compared with relocating the epidural catheter at a different vertebral interspace. A retrospective study was performed, as well as a meta-analysis of the literature to further validate our findings. ⋯ To estimate the pooled risk ratios (RRs), fixed or random effect models were used depending on the heterogeneity. We initially found that an intrathecal catheter significantly reduced the incidence of PDPH (pooled RR = 0.823; 95% CI = 0.700-0.967; P = 0.018) and the requirement of a TEBP (pooled RR = 0.616; 95% CI = 0.443-0.855; P = 0.004). Our study shows that insertion of an intrathecal catheter following ADP might be an effective and dependable method for reducing the risk of a PDPH and requirement for a TEBP in obstetric patients.
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Review Meta Analysis
Effect of Chinese patent medicine Si-Mo-Tang oral liquid for functional dyspepsia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Si-Mo-Tang oral liquid (SMT) has been widely used to treat functional dyspepsia (FD), but the effectiveness is still controversial. A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were performed to assess the efficacy and adverse effects of SMT for FD. ⋯ This meta-analysis suggests that SMT is an effective and safe therapy option for patients with FD. However, because of the high clinical heterogeneity, poor quality, high risk of bias and small sample size of some included studies, further standardized large-scale and strictly designed studies are needed.
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Review Meta Analysis
Drug-eluting balloon versus bare-mental stent and drug-eluting stent for de novo coronary artery disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 randomized controlled trials.
Drug-eluting balloon (DEB) has become an alternative option to drug-eluting stent (DES) for the treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR). However, the effect of drug-eluting balloon with regular bare-mental stent (BMS) in de novo coronary artery disease (CAD) is unclear. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the efficacy of DEB with regular BMS compared to BMS or DES in de novo CAD. ⋯ This limited evidence demonstrated that treatment with DEB+BMS appears to be effective in de novo CAD. In addition, DEB+ BMS clearly showed superiority to BMS, but is inferior to DES in the treatment of patients with de novo CAD. Hence, DES (especially new generation DES) should be recommended for patients with de novo CAD.
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Review Meta Analysis
Effect of tramadol as an adjuvant to local anesthetics for brachial plexus block: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Tramadol, a 4-phenyl-piperidine analog of codeine, has a unique action in that it has a central opioidergic, noradrenergic, serotonergic analgesic, and peripheral local anesthetic (LA) effect. Many studies have reported contradictory findings regarding the peripheral analgesic effect of tramadol as an adjuvant to LA in brachial plexus block (BPB). This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effects of tramadol as an adjunct to LA in BPB during shoulder or upper extremity surgery. ⋯ In upper extremity surgery performed under BPB, use of tramadol 100 mg as an adjuvant to LA appears to prolong the duration of sensory block, motor block, and analgesia, and shorten the time to onset of sensory and motor blocks without altering adverse effects.
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Review Meta Analysis
The importance of mean time in therapeutic range for complication rates in warfarin therapy of patients with atrial fibrillation: A systematic review and meta-regression analysis.
\Anticoagulation is used for stroke prophylaxis in non-valvular atrial fibrillation, amongst other by use of the vitamin K antagonist, warfarin. Quality in warfarin therapy is often summarized by the time patients spend within the therapeutic range (percent time in therapeutic range, TTR). The correlation between TTR and the occurrence of complications during warfarin therapy has been established, but the influence of patient characteristics in that respect remains undetermined. The objective of the present papers was to examine the association between mean TTR and complication rates with adjustment for differences in relevant patient cohort characteristics. ⋯ Although higher mean TTR in warfarin therapy was associated with lower complication rates in atrial fibrillation, the strength of the association was decreased when adjusting for differences in relevant clinical characteristics of the patient cohorts. This study suggests that mainly the safety of warfarin therapy increases with higher mean TTR, whereas effectiveness appears not to be substantially improved. Due to the limitations immanent in the meta-regression methods, the results of the present study should be interpreted with caution. Further research on the association between the quality of warfarin therapy and risk of complications is warranted with adjustment for clinically relevant characteristics.