Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Apr 2009
Review Meta AnalysisChlorpromazine dose for people with schizophrenia.
Chlorpromazine is one of the three antipsychotic drugs on the WHO Essential Drug List. It is used worldwide. The optimal dose has been the subject of evaluative research but summaries of this work are rare. ⋯ The average dose of chlorpromazine given to people with schizophrenia has declined across time, but this has come about by long - and sometimes hard - experience rather than from direction from high-grade trial-based evidence. This progression towards gentler levels of dosing has taken six decades. We hope that, for modern compounds, data from relevant high-grade evaluative studies will be much more swiftly available to guide informed practice.
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Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) is a non-pharmacological agent, based on delivering low voltage electrical currents to the skin. TENS is used for the treatment of a variety of pain conditions. ⋯ Due to insufficient extractable data in the studies included in this review, we are unable to make any definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of TENS as an isolated treatment for acute pain in adults.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Apr 2009
Review Meta AnalysisPain control in first trimester surgical abortion.
First trimester abortions especially cervical dilation and suction aspiration are associated with pain, despite various methods of pain control. ⋯ Conscious sedation, GA and some non-pharmacological interventions decreased procedural and postoperative pain, while being safe and satisfactory to patients. Data on the widely used PCB is inadequate to support its use, and it needs to be further studied to determine any benefit.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Apr 2009
Review Meta AnalysisRoutine preoperative medical testing for cataract surgery.
Cataract surgery is practiced widely and substantial resources are committed to an increasing cataract surgical rate in developing countries. With the current volume of cataract surgery and the increases in the future, it is critical to optimize the safety and cost-effectiveness of this procedure. Most cataracts are performed on older individuals with correspondingly high systemic and ocular comorbidities. It is likely that routine preoperative medical testing will detect medical conditions, but it is questionable whether these conditions should preclude individuals from cataract surgery or change their perioperative management. ⋯ This review has shown that routine pre-operative testing does not increase the safety of cataract surgery. Alternatives to routine preoperative medical testing have been proposed, including self-administered health questionnaires, which could substitute for health provider histories and physical examinations. Such avenues may lead to cost-effective means of identifying those at increased risk of medical adverse events due to cataract surgery. However, despite the rare occurrence, adverse medical events precipitated by cataract surgery remain a concern because of the large number of elderly patients with multiple medical comorbidities who have cataract surgery in various settings. The studies summarized in this review should assist recommendations for the standard of care of cataract surgery, at least in developed settings. Unfortunately, in developing country settings, medical history questionnaires would be useless to screen for risk since few people have ever been to a physician, let alone been diagnosed with any chronic disease.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Apr 2009
Review Meta AnalysisCombination formoterol and budesonide as maintenance and reliever therapy versus inhaled steroid maintenance for chronic asthma in adults and children.
Traditionally inhaled treatment for asthma has been considered as preventer and reliever therapy. The combination of formoterol and budesonide in a single inhaler introduces the possibility of using a single inhaler for both prevention and relief of symptoms (single inhaler therapy). ⋯ Single inhaler therapy can reduce the risk of asthma exacerbations needing oral corticosteroids in comparison with fixed dose maintenance inhaled corticosteroids. Guidelines and common best practice suggest the addition of regular long-acting beta(2)-agonist to inhaled corticosteroids for uncontrolled asthma, and single inhaler therapy has not been demonstrated to significantly reduce exacerbations in comparison with current best practice, although results of five large trials are awaiting full publication. Single inhaler therapy is not currently licensed for children under 18 years of age in the United Kingdom.