Gastroenterology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Pentoxifylline does not decrease short-term mortality but does reduce complications in patients with advanced cirrhosis.
Pentoxifylline, an inhibitor of tumor necrosis factor-alpha, is given to patients with liver diseases, but its effects in patients with advanced cirrhosis are unknown. We performed a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial of its effects in patients with cirrhosis. ⋯ Although pentoxifylline does not decrease short-term mortality in patients with advanced cirrhosis, it does reduce the risk of complications.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Adjunctive functional pharyngeal electrical stimulation reverses swallowing disability after brain lesions.
Oropharyngeal dysphagia is an important disability that occurs after stroke; it contributes to aspiration pneumonia and death, and current modalities for rehabilitation of dysphagia have uncertain efficacy. We therefore examined the role of pharyngeal electrical stimulation (PES) in expediting human swallowing recovery after experimental (virtual) and actual (stroke) brain lesions. ⋯ This pilot study of PES confirms that it is a safe neurostimulation intervention that reverses swallowing disability after virtual lesion or stroke.