Cochrane

Alcohol causes a major part of the liver diseases in the Western World. Several trials have addressed the effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids for alcoholic liver disease. This systematic review could not demonstrate any significant effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids on mortality, liver-related mortality, liver complications, and histology of ...

Cardenolides are naturally occurring plant toxins which act primarily on the heart. While poisoning with the digitalis cardenolides (digoxin and digitoxin) are reported worldwide, cardiotoxicity from other cardenolides such as the yellow oleander are also a major problem, with tens of thousands of cases of poisoning each year in South Asia. Because ...

Bicyclol is a novel synthetic 'anti-hepatitis' drug, used primarily in China for patients with chronic hepatitis B. No well-designed randomised clinical trials were found evaluating the benefits or possible harms of bicyclol for patients with chronic hepatitis B. Clinicians should be aware of this lack of evidence for bicyclol.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in many western countries and is characterized by its propensity to spread to bone which occurs in more than 80% of patients with advanced disease. Patients are at risk of complications including pain, hypercalcaemia, bone fracture and spinal cord compression. The role of bisphosphonates for the palliation ...

No good evidence to support using caesarean section for reducing mother to baby transmission of hepatitis C during labour and birth. Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes liver damage. Mother to infant transmission is the commonest route of hepatitis C virus (HVC) infection in children. Most infected children remain well but are at high risk ...

Eight trials (1753 patients) met the criteria for inclusion in this review. The addition of chemotherapy to standard radiotherapy provides a small but significant benefit in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer, especially when chemotherapy is administered at the same time as radiotherapy. The role of chemotherapy given before or after the radiotherapy ...

Men with advanced prostate cancer and painful bone metastases are a difficult group of patients to treat. Data from recent randomised trials of chemotherapy suggest an improvement in overall survival, pain relief, and quality of life with this form of therapy. Side effects are common and can be severe. Chemotherapy offers a treatment option for men ...

Almost every liver transplant recipient takes either cyclosporin or tacrolimus to prevent rejection of the graft. This is a review of the clinical trials that compared patients initially prescribed one of the two anti-rejection drugs after liver transplantation. Sixteen trials (3813 participants) were included. The review shows that tacrolimus is marginally ...

There is no obvious advantage in keeping patients 'nil by mouth' following gastrointestinal surgery, and this review support the notion on early commencement. The review implicated lower incidence of several post operative complications. The immediate advantage of caloric intake could be a faster recovery with fewer complications. Length of hospital ...

Endoscopic balloon dilation is slightly less successful than endoscopic sphincterotomy in stone extraction and more risky in inducing pancreatitis. However, endoscopic balloon dilation seems to have a clinical role in patients who have a coagulopathy, who are at risk for infection, and possibly in those who are older.