Cochrane

Background Liver transplantation is the main treatment option for people with severe advanced liver disease. When organs or tissues are transplanted from one person (organ donor) to another (organ recipient), the body of the organ recipient identifies the donor organ (or graft) as a foreign body and mounts a response against it in a way similar to ...

Background Constipation is a common side effect for people taking antipsychotic medications, especially clozapine. It has been shown that clozapine reduces bowel motility, and the consequences of this are sometimes serious. For every thousand patients treated with clozapine, it is thought that 300 to 600 will suffer constipation; at least four will ...

Review question Does molecular-targeted therapy (a type of treatment specifically targeting cancer cells) benefit people with late-stage stomach cancer? Background Due to the lack of clinical symptoms, many stomach cancers are diagnosed at a very late stage (stage III or stage IV), for which surgery cannot be the best option anymore. The effects ...

Review question Are enhanced recovery protocols beneficial or harmful when compared to standard surgery in people undergoing major surgeries of food pipe (oesophagus), stomach, liver and pancreas? Background 'Fast-track surgery' or 'enhanced recovery protocol' or 'fast-track rehabilitation' incorporates one or more of the following components: patient ...

Background When people have surgery on their abdomen, the digestive system can stop working for a few days. This is called ileus, and can be painful and uncomfortable. There are different causes of ileus, and several ways of treating or preventing it. One possible way of preventing ileus is by chewing gum. The idea is that chewing gum tricks the body ...

Importance of the review/background on the condition Hepatitis C is a disease of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus. Globally, an estimated 170 million people are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus. Chronic hepatitis C can cause liver damage in the form of inflammation and scarring of the liver (cirrhosis). Liver damage can lead ...

Standard surgical training has traditionally been one of apprenticeship, where the surgical trainee learns to perform the surgery under the supervision of a trained surgeon. This is costly, time-consuming, and is of variable effectiveness. Laparoscopic surgery involves the use of instruments using keyhole and is generally considered more difficult than ...

Antiviral treatment for chronic hepatitis C infections is currently judged as being successful if, at least six months after therapy, blood tests for hepatitis C viral RNA are negative; this has been called a sustained viral response. In the past, other outcomes for treatment have included improvements in biochemical tests (especially liver enzyme tests ...

Rotavirus infection is a common cause of diarrhoea in infants and young children, and can cause mild illness, hospitalization, and death. Rotavirus infections results in approximately half a million deaths per year in children aged under five years, mainly in low- and middle-income countries. Since 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended ...

Patients with symptomatic gallstones generally undergo laparoscopic cholecystectomy (key-hole removal of the gallbladder). During this procedure there is only tunnel vision for the surgeon provided by a camera inserted through one of the key-holes. The surgeon operates using instruments while a nurse or another doctor shows the surgeon the operating ...