Treatment of inflammatory conditions of the eye with medications What was the aim of this review? In this systematic review, we studied the available evidence on the effectiveness and safety of several medications used to treat a specific subset of inflammatory conditions of the back part of the eye. Key message We found that the medication methotrexate may be slightly more effective than mycophenolate. Otherwise, there was no strong evidence to suggest one medication is more effective or safe than the others. What did we study in this review? Non-infectious intermediate, posterior, and...

Interventions for maintenance therapy for granulomatosis with polyangiitis and microscopic polyangiitis This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the benefits and harms of different immunosuppressive treatments used for maintenance therapy in people who have granulomatosis with polyangiitis and microscopic polyangiitis. This is a protocol....

Personal protective equipment for preventing asbestos exposure in workers This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effects of personal protective equipment, including donning and doffing procedures and individual hygienic behaviour, compared to no such equipment or alternative equipment, on asbestos exposure in workers exposed to asbestos in demolition and repair work. This is a protocol....

Local anesthetics for intrauterine device placement This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To examine the effectiveness of local anesthetics for routine intrauterine device (IUD) placement on patient (e.g. pain, side effects, satisfaction) and provider outcomes (e.g. ease of placement, need for adjunctive placement measures, placement success) compared with placebo or no treatment. This is a protocol....

Antidepressants for osteoarthritis Background Osteoarthritis is a disease of the joints characterised by reduced cartilage and narrowing of the space between the joints. It may result in pain, deformity and disability. Antidepressant medicines are thought to affect pain by modulating nerve pathways in the central nervous system. We aimed to evaluate the clinical benefits and harms of antidepressants for knee and hip osteoarthritis pain. Study characteristics This review is current to January 2021. We included nine clinical trials with 2122 participants comparing antidepressants to placebo (a...

What are the benefits and harms of topical corticosteroids for treating dry eye? What is dry eye? Dry eye is a common condition that occurs when a person's tears cannot lubricate their eyes sufficiently. Tears can be inadequate and unstable for many reasons. For example, dry eye may occur when tear production is reduced or when the tear quality is poor. This tear instability leads to inflammation and damage of the eye's surface. Dry eye is uncomfortable. People with dry eye often feel stinging or burning and sometimes experience blurred vision. How is it treated? Many treatment options are...

Sympathetic nerve blocks for persistent pain in adults with inoperable abdominopelvic cancer This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To evaluate the benefits and harms of neurolytic sympathetic nerve blocks for persistent visceral pain in adults with inoperable abdominopelvic cancer compared to standard care or placebo and comparing single blocks to combination blocks. This is a protocol....

Systemic corticosteroids for radicular and non-radicular low back pain Key messages For radicular low back pain: – systemic corticosteroids may have small benefits on pain and function soon after treatment (short-term follow-up), and might improve function for a while after treatment (long-term follow-up); – benefits appear small, but systemic corticosteroids may be useful as they have few side effects when used for a short period of time, are widely available, and have low costs; systemic corticosteroids probably do not help avoid surgery; – it is unclear whether effectiveness of systemic...

Heart failure symptoms as predictors of hospital admission, readmission and all-cause mortality This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (prognosis). The objectives are as follows: Primary objective To synthesise the evidence on the association between common heart failure symptoms and all-cause and cause-specific outcomes (hospital admission, readmission and mortality) and HRQoL (heart failure-specific or generic). This is a protocol....

Respiratory syncytial virus vaccination during pregnancy for improving infant outcomes This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the efficacy and safety of maternal RSV vaccination for preventing respiratory syncytial virus disease in infants. This is a protocol....

Vitamin B supplementation for sickle cell disease This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the effectiveness of vitamin B supplementation in children and adults with sickle cell disease (SCD), compared to no intervention or an alternative vitamin B supplementation given as part of standard care. This is a protocol....

Antihistamines to prevent and treat motion sickness What is the aim of this review? Motion sickness, also commonly known as sea sickness or car sickness, is a set of symptoms - usually nausea and vomiting. These symptoms are caused by passive body movement - where your body is moving without you consciously making it move - in response to actual motion (for example, driving in a car or being in a boat), or the illusion of motion when exposed to virtual movement (for example, virtual reality simulations) and moving visual environments (such as looking out of the window of a moving train)....

Chinese Herbal Medicine for induced abortion in early pregnancy (before 14 weeks’ gestation) This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medicine for induced abortion in early pregnancy (before 14 weeks' gestation). This is a protocol....

Additional therapies used with exercise therapy for hip or knee osteoarthritis What was the aim of this review? Osteoarthritis, a chronic degenerative condition that commonly affects hip and knee joints, causes pain and difficulty with everyday activities such as walking. Land-based exercise therapy refers to exercise conducted on land (as opposed to exercise in the water) and is a first-line treatment. This review aimed to find out if adding additional therapies to land-based exercise therapy improved pain, function, quality of life, participant-reported overall change or X-ray changes in...

Oral nutrition interventions in hospitalised older people at nutritional risk: a network meta-analysis of individual participant data This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess in hospitalised older people with (risk of) malnutrition the effects of different nutrition interventions (e.g. supportive interventions, nutritional counselling, food modifications, oral nutritional supplements, comprehensive individualised nutritional interventions or combined approaches) compared to control groups (usual care, placebo or health education...

[Treating juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)-associated uveitis: how well do tumour necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors work?] Key messages Adalimumab appears to be beneficial for the treatment of JIA-associated uveitis while the evidence is very limited to etanercept. We did not find enough evidence to say whether these medications prevent vision loss; however, the studies may not have been long enough to detect changes in vision. Side-effects from TNF inhibitors are usually mild, although rare serious side effects can occur. What is juvenile idiopathic arthritis-associated uveitis? Juvenile...

Fertility-sparing, surgical interventions for low-risk, non-metastatic gestational trophoblastic neoplasia This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To measure efficacy and safety of fertility-sparing surgical interventions, with or without adjuvant chemotherapy, for the treatment of women with low-risk, non-metastatic gestational trophoblastic neoplasia (LR-NMGTN). This is a protocol....

C0133 Analgesics for intrauterine device placement This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To examine the effectiveness of analgesics for routine intrauterine device (IUD) placement on patient (e.g. pain, side effects, satisfaction) and provider outcomes (e.g. ease of placement, need for adjunctive placement measures, placement success) compared with placebo or no treatment. This is a protocol....

Boswellia for osteoarthritis This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the benefits and harms of boswellia extracts (BEs), or formulations containing BEs for osteoarthritis. This is a protocol....

Splinting for dislocated and shallow hips in babies What are dislocated or shallow hips? Dislocated or shallow hips occur when the ball and socket at the end of the thighbone do not fit together. The medical term is ‘developmental dysplasia of the hip' (DDH). Shallow hips occur in 10 out of 1000 newborn babies, though dislocated hips are rarer, occurring in 1 in every 1000 newborns. Hips can be ‘dislocated’, unstable (i.e. easily fall out of the socket during examination) or ‘stable’ (i.e. located in the joint throughout examination). How are these hips treated? Shallow and dislocated hips...