OBJECTIVE To verify the efficacy of dexamethasone in the prophylaxis of nausea and vomiting in patients submitted to laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS This was a systematic review of the literature through the MEDLINE, Embase, and LILACS databases. Only controlled and randomized clinical trials comparing dexamethasone to placebo in the prophylaxis of nausea and vomiting in patients submit...

There is a lack of consensus regarding which type of antiplatelet agent should be used in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and little is known on the advantages and disadvantages of dual antiplatelet therapy. We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis of available randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing different antiplatelet drugs (Aspirin, Ticlopidine, Clop...

BACKGROUND Cancer is a common disease and radiotherapy is one well-established treatment for some solid tumours. Hyperbaric oxygenation therapy (HBOT) may improve the ability of radiotherapy to kill hypoxic cancer cells, so the administration of radiotherapy while breathing hyperbaric oxygen may result in a reduction in mortality and recurrence. OBJECTIVES To assess the benefits and harms of ...

Purpose: Weather information plays a crucial role in the human society. It helps to lower weather related losses and enhance societal benefits such as protection of life, health, property, etc., is very much essential for proper classification images (WIs) into several categories dew, fogsmog, frost, glaze, hail, lightning, rain, rainbow, rime, sandstorm, snow, etc. so that appropriate can be p...

Abstract In Europe, some non-native tree species (NNT) are classified as invasive because they have spread into semi-natural habitats. Yet, available risk assessment protocols often based on a few limited case studies with unknown representativeness and uncertain data quality. This is particularly problematic when negative impacts of NNT confined to particular ecosystems or processes, whilst pr...

BACKGROUND Number needed to treat (NNT) is a useful measure of a treatment's clinical benefit or harm. However, NNT estimates for treatments for neurologic conditions have previously been generated only for dichotomized functional outcomes, which may underestimate clinically relevant treatment effects. OBJECTIVES To develop a method for estimating NNTs for nonbinary outcomes from parallel des...

Background and Purpose—The SAINT I trial demonstrated that the neuroprotective agent NXY-059 improves the distribution of acute stroke patient outcomes on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) of global disability. Standard dichotomized number-needed-to-treat (NNT) analyses for the magnitude of treatment benefit range widely, from 22.7 to infinity, and each capture only a portion of the observed bene...

INTRODUCTION The efficacy of steroid administration before planned tracheal extubation in critical care patients remains controversial with respect to the selection of patients most likely to benefit from this treatment. METHODS We performed an extensive literature search for adult trials testing steroids versus placebo to prevent reintubation or laryngeal dyspnoea. Studies were evaluated on ...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is recognized as an evidence-based treatment in improving dyspnea and quality of life in patients with COPD. We evaluated the number needed to treat (NNT) to achieve an increase in physical capacity, as defined by a significant improvement in the six-minute walk test (6MWT) in patients with COPD undergoing PR. METHODS The study enrolled 284 patients ag...

CONTEXT Ongoing efforts to improve the quality of reporting for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) include the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) statement. We examined the frequency of explicit reporting of the number needed to treat (NNT) and the absolute risk reduction (ARR) in RCTs. METHODS Five frequently cited journals were investigated: Annals of Internal Medicine, B...