British journal of anaesthesia
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Review Meta Analysis
Systematic review on analgesics and dexamethasone for post-tonsillectomy pain in adults.
Intense pain can last several days after tonsillectomy. It is often undertreated and improved analgesic strategies that can be safely used at home are needed. ⋯ Single analgesics and dexamethasone provide only a weak to moderate effect for post-tonsillectomy pain on the day of operation and thus a multimodal analgesic strategy is recommended. Short follow-up times and clinical heterogeneity of studies limit the usefulness of results.
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Review Meta Analysis
Systematic review on analgesics and dexamethasone for post-tonsillectomy pain in adults.
Intense pain can last several days after tonsillectomy. It is often undertreated and improved analgesic strategies that can be safely used at home are needed. ⋯ Single analgesics and dexamethasone provide only a weak to moderate effect for post-tonsillectomy pain on the day of operation and thus a multimodal analgesic strategy is recommended. Short follow-up times and clinical heterogeneity of studies limit the usefulness of results.
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Clinical indicators are powerful tools to quantify the safety and quality of patient care. Their validity is often unclear and definitions extremely heterogeneous. As part of the International Standardised Endpoints in Perioperative Medicine (StEP) initiative, this study aimed to derive a set of standardised and valid clinical outcome indicators for use in perioperative clinical trials. ⋯ PROSPERO 2016 CRD42016042102 (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php? ID=CRD42016042102).
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Clinical indicators are powerful tools to quantify the safety and quality of patient care. Their validity is often unclear and definitions extremely heterogeneous. As part of the International Standardised Endpoints in Perioperative Medicine (StEP) initiative, this study aimed to derive a set of standardised and valid clinical outcome indicators for use in perioperative clinical trials. ⋯ PROSPERO 2016 CRD42016042102 (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php? ID=CRD42016042102).
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Over the past decade, the mechanisms underlying placebo effects have begun to be identified. At the same time, the placebo response appears to have increased in pharmacological trials and marked placebo effects are found in neurostimulation and surgical trials, thereby posing the question whether non-pharmacological interventions should be placebo-controlled to a greater extent. In this narrative review we discuss how the knowledge of placebo mechanisms may help to improve placebo control in pharmacological and non-pharmacological trials. ⋯ Finally, we discuss how systematic investigations into placebo mechanisms across various pain conditions and types of treatment are needed in order to 'personalise' the placebo control to the specific pathophysiology and interventions, which may ultimately lead to identification of more effective treatment for pain patients. In conclusion this review shows that it is important to understand how patients' perception and expectations influence the efficacy of active and placebo treatments in order to improve the test of new treatments. Importantly, this applies not only to assessment of drug efficacy but also to non-pharmacological trials on surgeries and stimulation procedures.