Articles: patients.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2015
Review Meta AnalysisPsychosocial interventions for benzodiazepine harmful use, abuse or dependence.
Benzodiazepines (BZDs) have a sedative and hypnotic effect upon people. Short term use can be beneficial but long term BZD use is common, with several risks in addition to the potential for dependence in both opiate and non-opiate dependent patients. ⋯ CBT plus taper is effective in the short term (three month time period) in reducing BZD use. However, this is not sustained at six months and subsequently. Currently there is insufficient evidence to support the use of MI to reduce BZD use. There is emerging evidence to suggest that a tailored GP letter versus a generic GP letter, a standardised interview versus TAU, and relaxation versus TAU could be effective for BZD reduction. There is currently insufficient evidence for other approaches to reduce BZD use.
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Review Meta Analysis
Risk Factors and Screening Instruments to Predict Adverse Outcomes for Undifferentiated Older Emergency Department Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
A significant proportion of geriatric patients experience suboptimal outcomes following episodes of emergency department (ED) care. Risk stratification screening instruments exist to distinguish vulnerable subsets, but their prognostic accuracy varies. This systematic review quantifies the prognostic accuracy of individual risk factors and ED-validated screening instruments to distinguish patients more or less likely to experience short-term adverse outcomes like unanticipated ED returns, hospital readmissions, functional decline, or death. ⋯ Risk stratification of geriatric adults following ED care is limited by the lack of pragmatic, accurate, and reliable instruments. Although absence of dependency reduces the risk of 1-year mortality, no individual risk factor, frailty construct, or risk assessment instrument accurately predicts risk of adverse outcomes in older ED patients. Existing instruments designed to risk stratify older ED patients do not accurately distinguish high- or low-risk subsets. Clinicians, educators, and policy-makers should not use these instruments as valid predictors of post-ED adverse outcomes. Future research to derive and validate feasible ED instruments to distinguish vulnerable elders should employ published decision instrument methods and examine the contributions of alternative variables, such as health literacy and dementia, which often remain clinically occult.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2015
Review Meta AnalysisSilver-coated endotracheal tubes for prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients.
Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is one of the most common nosocomial infections in intubated and mechanically ventilated patients. Endotracheal tubes (ETTs) appear to be an independent risk factor for VAP. Silver-coated ETTs slowly release silver cations. It is these silver ions that appear to have a strong antimicrobial effect. Because of this antimicrobial effect of silver, silver-coated ETTs could be an effective intervention to prevent VAP in people who require mechanical ventilation for 24 hours or longer. ⋯ This review provides limited evidence that silver-coated ETT reduces the risk of VAP, especially during the first 10 days of mechanical ventilation.
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Review Meta Analysis
Lung protective ventilation in patients undergoing major surgery: a systematic review incorporating a Bayesian approach.
Protective ventilation (PV) has been validated in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. However, the effect of PV in patients undergoing major surgery is controversial. The study aimed to explore the beneficial effect of PV on patients undergoing a major operation by systematic review and meta-analysis. ⋯ The study demonstrates that PV can reduce the risk of ALI in patients undergoing major surgery. However, there is insufficient evidence that such a beneficial effect can be translated to more clinically relevant outcomes such as mortality or duration of MV.
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J Coll Physicians Surg Pak · Jan 2015
Review Meta AnalysisComparison of Total Disc Replacement with lumbar fusion: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate whether a beneficial clinical effect of the Total Disc Replacement (TDR) over lumbar fusion for the treatment of patients with Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD). An electronic search of PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and EMBASE from their inception to 2012 was completed, and we assessed risk bias and retrieved relevant data, and meta-analysis was performed, if appropriate. Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Visual Analog Score (VAS), patient satisfaction or VAS patient satisfaction, narcotic use, overall success rate, reoperation rate, work status, "surgery again?", complications and radiographic outcomes were evaluated. ⋯ At 2 years, TDR was demonstrated to be more beneficial for patients compared to lumbar fusion in the following outcomes, including ODI scores (MD:-4.87, 95% CI: -7.77 to -1.97, p=0.001), patient satisfaction (OR:1.91, 95% CI: 1.27 to 2.86, p=0.002) and VAS patient satisfaction (MD:9.10, 95% CI: 3.20 to 14.99, p=0.002), the percentage of using narcotics (OR=0.54, 95%CI: 0.31 to 0.96, p=0.03), overall success rate (OR:1.68, 95% CI: 1.26 to 2.25, p=0.005), the rate of patients to chose the same surgical treatment again (OR:2.38, 95% CI: 1.72 to 3.28, p < 0.001), and complications (OR=0.50, 95%CI: 0.29 to 0.84, p=0.008). Other outcomes, including re-operation rate (OR:0.62, 95% CI: 0.36 to 1.06, p=0.08) and work status (OR=1.05, 95% CI: 0.75 to 1.47, p=0.80), were demonstrated to be no differences between the two groups. In a long-term of follow-up (2 years), TDR shows a significant superiority for the treatment of lumbar DDD compared with fusion.