Prescrire international
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Prescrire international · Apr 2009
Drug-eluting coronary stents: many meta-analyses, little benefit.
(1) Angioplasty is one method of unblocking a stenosed coronary artery. A metal stent is sometimes placed in the vessel lumen. Drug-eluting stents coated with an immunosuppressant or cytotoxic drug have been developed with the objective of reducing the risk of recurrent stenosis; (2) We examined the available literature on the efficacy and adverse effects of drug-eluting stents, based on the standard Prescrire methodology; (3) We found a plethora of clinical trials of drug-eluting stents, and numerous meta-analyses, reflecting the broad economic implications of the market for these devices. ⋯ Serious allergic reactions have also been reported; (6) In most cases, especially when the risk of restenosis is low or moderate, it is better to use a bare metal stent. Coronary artery bypass grafting should be considered when there is a high risk of restenosis. Drug-eluting stents are just one alternative to surgery.
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(1) For patients with chronic symptomatic hyperuricaemia who fail to respond to a low purine diet, allopurinol is the standard drug used to prevent complications. This xanthine oxidase inhibitor can, in rare instances, cause severe skin reactions. Probenecid, a uricosuric agent, with which there is also long experience, is a second-line option; (2) Febuxostat, another xanthine oxidase inhibitor, is now authorized for the treatment of hyperuricaemia; (3) Two randomised double-blind trials in 762 and 1072 patients tested various doses of febuxostat compared with a standard dose of allopurinol (33 mg/day). ⋯ In the short term, severe cardiac disorders, based on a composite endpoint, were 4 to 5 times more frequent with febuxostat than with allopurinol. Treatment withdrawals due to hepatic disorders were more frequent with febuxostat than with allopurinol (2.8% versus 0.4%). The relative frequency of severe cutaneous disorders with febuxostat and allopurinol is not known; (6) Clinical evaluation does not include any head-to-head trials of febuxostat versus probenecid; (7) In practice, patients with hyperuricaemia should continue to receive allopurinol as first-line treatment, and probenecid as second-line treatment if allopurinol is ineffective.
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Prescrire international · Apr 2009
Irritable bowel syndrome: a mild disorder; purely symptomatic treatment.
(1) Patients frequently complain of occasional bowel movement disorders, associated with abdominal pain or discomfort, but they are rarely due to an underlying organ involvement. Even when patients have recurrent symptoms, serious disorders are no more frequent in these patients than in the general population, unless other manifestations, anaemia, or an inflammatory syndrome is also present; (2) There is currently no way of radically modifying the natural course of recurrent irritable bowel syndrome; (3) The effects of antispasmodics on abdominal pain have been tested in about 20 randomised controlled trials. Pinaverium and peppermint essential oil have the best-documented efficacy and only moderate adverse effects. ⋯ A few cases of septicaemia have been reported; (11) The six available trials of acupuncture (versus sham acupuncture) showed no more than a placebo effect; (12) In practice, patients who have recurrent irritable bowel syndrome but with no other signs of a condition warranting specific treatment should be reassured as to the harmless nature of their disorder if a careful physical examination and basic laboratory tests are negative. The only available treatments have purely symptomatic effects and only limited efficacy. It is best to avoid using all treatments and additional diagnostic investigations that carry a risk of disproportionate adverse effects.
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In a trial involving patients with advanced-stage liver cancer but unimpaired hepatic function, sorafenib increased the median survival time by about 3 months in half of patients, but provoked frequent adverse effects.