Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2008
ReviewPrinted educational materials: effects on professional practice and health care outcomes.
Printed educational materials (PEMs) are widely used passive dissemination strategies to improve knowledge, awareness, attitudes, skills, professional practice and patient outcomes. Traditionally they are presented in paper formats such as monographs, publication in peer-reviewed journals and clinical guidelines and appear to be the most frequently adopted method for disseminating information. ⋯ The results of this review suggest that when compared to no intervention, PEMs when used alone may have a beneficial effect on process outcomes but not on patient outcomes. Despite this wide of range of effects reported for PEMs, clinical significance of the observed effect sizes is not known. There is insufficient information about how to optimise educational materials. The effectiveness of educational materials compared to other interventions is uncertain.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2008
ReviewPsychosocial interventions for prevention of psychological disorders in law enforcement officers.
Psychosocial interventions are widely used for the prevention of psychological disorders in law enforcement officers. ⋯ There is evidence only from individual small and low quality trials with minimal data suggesting that police officers benefit from psychosocial interventions, in terms of physical symptoms and psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression, sleep problems, cynicism, anger, PTSD, marital problems and distress. No data on adverse effects were available. Meta-analyses of the available data were not possible. Further well-designed trials of psychosocial interventions are required. Research is needed on organization-based interventions to enhance psychological health among police officers.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2008
ReviewThird trimester antiviral prophylaxis for preventing maternal genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) recurrences and neonatal infection.
Genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection is one of the most common viral sexually transmitted infections. The majority of women with genital herpes will have a recurrence during pregnancy. Transmission of the virus from mother to fetus typically occurs by direct contact with virus in the genital tract during birth. ⋯ Women with recurrent genital herpes simplex virus should be informed that the risk of neonatal herpes is low. There is insufficient evidence to determine if antiviral prophylaxis reduces the incidence of neonatal herpes. Antenatal antiviral prophylaxis reduces viral shedding and recurrences at delivery and reduces the need for cesarean delivery for genital herpes. Limited information exists regarding the neonatal safety of prophylaxis. The risks, benefits, and alternatives to antenatal prophylaxis should be discussed with women who have a history and prophylaxis initiated for women who desire intervention.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2008
ReviewIntravenous versus inhalation anaesthesia for one-lung ventilation.
The technique called one-lung ventilation can confine bleeding or infection to one lung, prevent rupture of a lung cyst or, more commonly, facilitate surgical exposure of the unventilated lung. During one-lung ventilation, anaesthesia is maintained either by delivering a volatile anaesthetic to the ventilated lung or by infusing an intravenous anaesthetic. It is possible that the method chosen to maintain anaesthesia may affect patient outcomes. ⋯ There is no evidence from randomized controlled trials of differences in patient outcomes for anaesthesia maintained by intravenous versus inhalational anaesthesia during one-lung ventilation. This review highlights the need for continued research into the use of intravenous versus inhalation anaesthesia for one-lung ventilation. Future trials should have standardized outcome measures such as death, adverse postoperative outcomes and intraoperative awareness. Dropouts and losses to follow up should be reported.
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Surgical wounds that become infected are often debrided because clinicians believe that removal of this necrotic or infected tissue will expedite wound healing. There are numerous methods available but no consensus on which one is most effective for surgical wounds. ⋯ There is a lack of large, high quality published RCTs evaluating debridement per se or comparing different methods of debridement for surgical wounds, to guide clinical decision making.