Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · May 2022
ReviewPrehabilitation versus no prehabilitation to improve functional capacity, reduce postoperative complications and improve quality of life in colorectal cancer surgery.
Surgery is the cornerstone in curative treatment of colorectal cancer. Unfortunately, surgery itself can adversely affect patient health. 'Enhanced Recovery After Surgery' programmes, which include multimodal interventions, have improved patient outcomes substantially. However, these are mainly applied peri- and postoperatively. Multimodal prehabilitation includes multiple preoperative interventions to prepare patients for surgery with the aim of increasing resilience, thereby improving postoperative outcomes. ⋯ Prehabilitation may result in an improved functional capacity, determined with the 6-minute walk test both preoperatively and postoperatively. Complication rates and the number of emergency department visits postoperatively may also diminish due to a prehabilitation programme, while the number of re-admissions may be higher in the prehabilitation group. The certainty of evidence ranges from moderate to very low, due to downgrading for serious risk of bias, imprecision and inconsistency. In addition, only three heterogeneous studies were included in this review. Therefore, the findings of this review should be interpreted with caution. Numerous relevant RCTs are ongoing and will be included in a future update of this review.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · May 2022
ReviewProphylactic antiemetics for adults receiving intravenous opioids in the acute care setting.
Physicians often prescribe opioids for pain in the acute care setting. Nausea and vomiting are well-described adverse events, occurring in over one-third of patients. Prophylactic antiemetics may be one option to reduce opioid-associated nausea and vomiting. However, these medications also have their own adverse effects, so it is important to understand their efficacy and safety prior to routine use. This is a review of randomized controlled trials comparing prophylactic antiemetics versus placebo or standard care for preventing opioid-associated nausea and vomiting. ⋯ There was no evidence that prophylactic metoclopramide affected the risk of vomiting, nausea, or the need for rescue medication when provided prior to intravenous opioids in the acute care setting. There was a clinically insignificant difference in nausea severity when comparing prophylactic metoclopramide with placebo. Overall, the evidence was of low certainty. Future research could better delineate the effects of prophylactic antiemetics on specific populations, and new studies are needed to evaluate the use of other prophylactic antiemetic agents, for which there were no data.
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Clonidine is a presynaptic alpha-2-adrenergic receptor agonist that has been used for many years to treat hypertension and other conditions, including chronic pain. Adverse events associated with systemic use of the drug have limited its application. Topical use of drugs has been gaining interest since the beginning of the century, as it may limit adverse events without loss of analgesic efficacy. Topical clonidine (TC) formulations have been investigated for almost 20 years in clinical trials. This is an update of the original Cochrane Review published in Issue 8, 2015. ⋯ This is an update of a review published in 2015, for which our conclusions remain unchanged. Topical clonidine may provide some benefit to adults with painful diabetic neuropathy; however, the evidence is very uncertain. Additional trials are needed to assess TC in other neuropathic pain conditions and to determine whether it is possible to predict who or which groups of people will benefit from TC.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · May 2022
ReviewCleavage-stage versus blastocyst-stage embryo transfer in assisted reproductive technology.
Advances in embryo culture media have led to a shift in in vitro fertilisation (IVF) practice from cleavage-stage embryo transfer to blastocyst-stage embryo transfer. The rationale for blastocyst-stage transfer is to improve both uterine and embryonic synchronicity and enable self selection of viable embryos, thus resulting in better live birth rates. ⋯ There is low-quality evidence for live birth and moderate-quality evidence for clinical pregnancy that fresh blastocyst-stage transfer is associated with higher rates of both than fresh cleavage-stage transfer. We are uncertain whether blastocyst-stage transfer improves the cCPR derived from fresh and frozen-thawed cycles following a single oocyte retrieval. Although there is a benefit favouring blastocyst-stage transfer in fresh cycles, more evidence is needed to know whether the stage of transfer impacts on cumulative live birth and pregnancy rates. Future RCTs should report rates of live birth, cumulative live birth, and miscarriage. They should also evaluate women with a poor prognosis to enable those undergoing assisted reproductive technology (ART) and service providers to make well-informed decisions on the best treatment option available.
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Ocrelizumab is a humanised anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody developed for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in March 2017 for using in adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). Ocrelizumab is the only disease-modifying therapy (DMT) approved for PPMS. In November 2017, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) also approved ocrelizumab as the first drug for people with early PPMS. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the benefits, harms, and tolerability of ocrelizumab in people with MS. ⋯ For people with RRMS, ocrelizumab probably results in a large reduction in relapse rate and little to no difference in adverse events when compared with interferon beta-1a at 96 weeks (moderate-certainty evidence). Ocrelizumab may result in a large reduction in disability progression, treatment discontinuation caused by adverse events, number of participants with gadolinium-enhancing T1 lesions on MRI, and number of participants with new or enlarging T2-hyperintense lesions on MRI, and may result in little to no difference in serious adverse events (low-certainty evidence). For people with PPMS, ocrelizumab probably results in a higher rate of adverse events when compared with placebo for at least 120 weeks (moderate-certainty evidence). Ocrelizumab may result in a reduction in disability progression and little to no difference in serious adverse events and treatment discontinuation caused by adverse events (low-certainty evidence). Ocrelizumab was well tolerated clinically; the most common adverse events were infusion-related reactions and nasopharyngitis, and urinary tract and upper respiratory tract infections.