Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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The Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is an age-specific disorder, characterised by epileptic seizures, a characteristic electroencephalogram (EEG), psychomotor delay and behaviour disorders. It occurs more frequently in males and onset is usually before the age of eight, with a peak between three and five years. Late cases occurring in adolescence and early adulthood have rarely been reported. Language is frequently affected, with both slowness in ideation and expression in addition to difficulties of motor dysfunction. Severe behavioural disorders (for example hyperactivity, aggressiveness and autistic tendencies) and personality disorders are nearly always present. There is also a tendency for psychosis to develop with time. The long-term prognosis is poor; although the epilepsy often improves, complete seizure freedom is rare and conversely the mental and psychiatric disorders tend to worsen with time. ⋯ The optimum treatment for Lennox-Gastaut syndrome remains uncertain and no study to date has shown any one drug to be highly efficacious; rufinamide, lamotrigine, topiramate and felbamate may be helpful as add-on therapy. Until further research has been undertaken, clinicians will need to continue to consider each patient individually, taking into account the potential benefit of each therapy weighed against the risk of adverse effects.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2009
ReviewWITHDRAWN: Immunosuppressant and immunomodulatory treatment for dermatomyositis and polymyositis.
Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies are chronic skeletal diseases with significant mortality and morbidity despite treatment by corticosteroids. Immunosuppressive agents and immunomodulatory therapy are used to improve disease control and reduce the long-term side effects of corticosteroids. While these treatments are used commonly in routine clinical practice, the optimal therapeutic regimen remains unclear. ⋯ This systematic review highlights the lack of high quality randomised controlled trials that assess the efficacy and toxicity of immunosuppressants in inflammatory myositis.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2009
Review Meta AnalysisTechniques for liver parenchymal transection in liver resection.
Blood loss during elective liver resection is one of the main factors affecting the surgical outcome. Different parenchymal transection techniques have been suggested to decrease blood loss. ⋯ Clamp-crush technique is advocated as the method of choice in liver parenchymal transection because it avoids special equipment, whereas the newer methods do not seem to offer any benefit in decreasing the morbidity or transfusion requirement.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2009
Review Meta AnalysisAdjuvant (post-surgery) chemotherapy for early stage epithelial ovarian cancer.
Epithelial ovarian cancer is diagnosed in 4500 women in the UK each year of whom 1700 will ultimately die of their disease. Ten to fifteen percent of all cases are diagnosed early when there is still a good possibility for cure. The treatment of early stage disease involves surgery to remove disease often followed by chemotherapy. The largest clinical trials of this adjuvant therapy show an overall survival (OS) advantage with adjuvant platinum based chemotherapy but the precise role of this treatment in sub-groups of patients with differing prognoses needs to be defined. ⋯ Adjuvant platinum based chemotherapy is effective in prolonging the survival of the majority of patients who are assessed as having early stage epithelial ovarian cancer. However, even given the limits of sub-group analyses, there is strong evidence that optimal surgical staging identifies patients who have either little or nothing to gain from adjuvant chemotherapy. Taken together with the lack of a survival advantage seen in patients with "low-risk" cancers in the ICON1 trial, it appears safe to withhold adjuvant chemotherapy from optimally staged patients with well differentiated tumours.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2009
Review Meta AnalysisTransient neurologic symptoms (TNS) following spinal anaesthesia with lidocaine versus other local anaesthetics.
Spinal anaesthesia has been in use since 1898. During the last decade there has been an increase in the number of reports implicating lidocaine as a possible cause of temporary and permanent neurologic complications after spinal anaesthesia. Follow up of patients who received uncomplicated spinal anaesthesia revealed that some of them developed pain in the lower extremities after an initial full recovery. This painful condition that occurs in the immediate postoperative period was named 'transient neurologic symptoms' (TNS). ⋯ The risk of developing TNS after spinal anaesthesia with lidocaine was significantly higher than when bupivacaine, prilocaine, or procaine were used. The term 'transient neurological symptoms' implies neurologic pathology. Failing identification of the pathogenesis of TNS, consideration should be given to choosing a neutral descriptive term which does not imply a particular causation. One study about the impact of TNS on patient satisfaction and functional impairment demonstrated that non-TNS patients were more satisfied and had less functional impairment after surgery than TNS patients, but this did not influence their willingness to recommend spinal anaesthesia.