Cochrane Db Syst Rev
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jun 2019
Meta AnalysisLipid emulsions for parenterally fed term and late preterm infants.
Lipid emulsions (LE) form a vital component of infant nutrition for critically ill, late preterm or term infants, particularly for those with gastrointestinal failure. Conventionally used soybean oil-based LE (S-LE) have high polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content and phytosterols, which may contribute to adverse effects including parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease (PNALD). ⋯ Based on the current review, there is insufficient data from randomised studies to determine with any certainty, the potential benefit of any LE including fish oil-containing LEs over another LE, for prevention or resolution of PNALD/cholestasis or any other outcomes in term and late preterm infants with underlying surgical conditions or cholestasis. There were no studies in infants without surgical conditions or cholestasis.Further research is required to establish role of fish oil or lipids from other sources in LEs to improve PNALD/cholestasis, and other clinical outcomes in parenterally fed term and late preterm infants.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jun 2019
Meta AnalysisRoute of antibiotic prophylaxis for prevention of cerebrospinal fluid-shunt infection.
The main complication of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt surgery is shunt infection. Prevention of these shunt infections consists of the perioperative use of antibiotics that can be administered in five different ways: orally; intravenously; intrathecally; topically; and via the implantation of antibiotic-impregnated shunt catheters. ⋯ We included a total of 11 small randomised controlled trials, containing 1109 participants, in this systematic review. Three of these studies included solely children, and the remaining eight included participants of all ages. Most studies were limited to the evaluation of ventriculoperitoneal shunts. However, five studies included participants with ventriculoatrial shunts, of which one study contained four participants with a subduroperitoneal shunt. We judged four out of 11 (36%) trials at unclear risk of bias, while the remaining seven trials (64%) scored high risk of bias in one or more of the components assessed.We analysed all included studies in order to estimate the effect of antibiotic prophylaxis on the proportion of shunt infections regardless of administration route. Although the quality of evidence in these studies was low, there may be a positive effect of antibiotic prophylaxis on the number of participants who had shunt infections (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.36 to 0.84), meaning a 55% reduction in the number of participants who had shunt infection compared with standard care or placebo.Within the different administration routes, only within intravenous administration of antibiotic prophylaxis there may be evidence of an effect on the risk of shunt infections (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.33 to 0.90). However, this was the only route that contained more than two studies (8 studies; 797 participants). Evidence was uncertain for both, intrathecal administration of antibiotics (RR 0.73, 95% CI 0.28 to 1.93, 2 studies; 797 participants; low quality evidence) and antibiotic impregnated catheters (RR 0.36, 95% CI 0.10 to 1.24, 1 study; 110 participants; very low quality evidence) AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Antibiotic prophylaxis may have a positive effect on lowering the number of participants who had shunt infections. However, the quality of included studies was low and the effect is not consistent within the different routes of administration that have been analysed. It is therefore uncertain whether prevention of shunt infection varies by different antibiotic agents, different administration routes, timing and doses; or by characteristics of patients, e.g. children and adults. The results of the review should be seen as hypothesis-generating rather than definitive, and the results should be confirmed in adequately powered trials or large multicentre studies in order to obtain high-quality evidence in the field of ventricular shunt infection prevention.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jun 2019
Meta AnalysisScreening for reducing morbidity and mortality in malignant melanoma.
Screening for malignant melanoma has the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality from the disease through earlier detection, as prognosis is closely associated with the thickness of the lesion at the time of diagnosis. However, there are also potential harms from screening people without skin lesion concerns, such as overdiagnosis of lesions that would never have caused symptoms if they had remained undetected. Overdiagnosis results in harm through unnecessary treatment and the psychosocial consequences of being labelled with a cancer diagnosis. For any type of screening, the benefits must outweigh the harms. Screening for malignant melanoma is currently practised in many countries, and the incidence of the disease is rising sharply, while mortality remains largely unchanged. ⋯ Adult general population screening for malignant melanoma is not supported or refuted by current evidence from RCTs. It therefore does not fulfil accepted criteria for implementation of population screening programmes. This review did not investigate the effects of screening people with a history of malignant melanoma or in people with a genetic disposition for malignant melanoma (e.g. familial atypical mole and melanoma syndrome). To determine the benefits and harms of screening for malignant melanoma, a rigorously conducted randomised trial is needed, which assesses overall mortality, overdiagnosis, psychosocial consequences, and resource use.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jun 2019
Antidepressants plus benzodiazepines for adults with major depression.
Anxiety frequently coexists with depression and adding benzodiazepines to antidepressant treatment is common practice to treat people with major depression. However, more evidence is needed to determine whether this combined treatment is more effective and not any more harmful than antidepressants alone. It has been suggested that benzodiazepines may lose their efficacy with long-term administration and their chronic use carries risks of dependence.This is the 2019 updated version of a Cochrane Review first published in 2001, and previously updated in 2005. This update follows a new protocol to conform with the most recent Cochrane methodology guidelines, with the inclusion of 'Summary of findings' tables and GRADE evaluations for quality of evidence. ⋯ Combined antidepressant plus benzodiazepine therapy was more effective than antidepressants alone in improving depression severity, response in depression and remission in depression in the early phase. However, these effects were not maintained in the acute or the continuous phase. Combined therapy resulted in fewer dropouts due to adverse events than antidepressants alone, but combined therapy was associated with a greater proportion of participants reporting at least one adverse effect.The moderate quality evidence of benefits of adding a benzodiazepine to an antidepressant in the early phase must be balanced judiciously against possible harms and consideration given to other alternative treatment strategies when antidepressant monotherapy may be considered inadequate. We need long-term, pragmatic randomised controlled trials to compare combination therapy against the monotherapy of antidepressant in major depression.
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Bipolar disorder is a common condition associated with high morbidity; developing efficacious, safe treatments is therefore essential. Lithium is an effective maintenance treatment for bipolar disorder. It acts as mood stabiliser and reduces the risk of suicide. However, evidence assessing the efficacy of lithium in the treatment of acute mania is less robust. Current evidence-based guidelines cite multiple anti-dopaminergic and mood-stabilising agents as initial treatments: more definite evidence is needed to decide if lithium should be the first-line therapy. ⋯ This systematic review indicates that lithium is more effective than placebo as a treatment for acute mania but increases the risk for somnolence and tremor. Limited evidence suggests little or no difference between lithium and other mood stabilisers (valproate, carbamazepine) or antipsychotics (risperidone, quetiapine, haloperidol). Olanzapine may be an exception, as it is probably slightly more effective than lithium. There is uncertain evidence that risperidone may also be more effective than lithium. Lithium is probably more effective at treating acute mania than topiramate. When compared to placebo, lithium was more likely to cause adverse events. However, when compared to other drugs, too few studies provided data on adverse effects to provide high-certainty evidence. More, rigorously designed, large-scale studies are needed to definitively conclude if lithium is superior to other interventions in treating acute mania.