BACKGROUND Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in patients undergoing cardiac surgery and is associated with a high rate of death, long-term sequelae and healthcare costs. We conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials for strategies to prevent or treat AKI in cardiac surgery. METHODS We screened Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Renal Library, and Google Scholar for randomized cont...

BACKGROUND Multiple meta-analyses have been published in efforts to determine whether operative or nonoperative treatment of Achilles tendon ruptures affords superior outcomes. PURPOSE To perform a systematic review of overlapping meta-analyses comparing operative and nonoperative treatment of Achilles tendon ruptures to determine which meta-analyses provide the highest level of evidence for ...

The present meta-analysis was carried out to determine whether supplementation with glutamine (Gln) would reduce the intestinal inflammatory response and mucosal permeability in patients undergoing abdominal surgery. The PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and The Cochrane Library databases were searched for randomized controlled trials on the effects of supplementation with Gln, and published from...

INTRODUCTION Quality assessment of included studies is an important component of systematic reviews. OBJECTIVE The authors investigated inter-rater and test-retest reliability for quality assessments conducted by inexperienced student raters. DESIGN Student raters received a training session on quality assessment using the Jadad Scale for randomised controlled trials and the Newcastle-Ottaw...

Introduction Acupuncture has been shown to be effective in restoring gastrointestinal function tumor patients receiving the enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocol. The present systematic review and meta-analysis aimed evaluate rationality efficacy of integrating acupuncture ERAS strategy recuperate function. Methods We searched eleven databases for relevant randomized clinical trials (...

Background: The Consolidated Standards for Reporting Trials (CONSORT) are aimed to standardize clinical trial reporting. Our objective is to compare the quality of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) published in 2005–2009 and 2011–2012 according to the current CONSORT statements and Jadad scale. Methods: Data Sources: Reports on RCTs of TCM in the China Nati...

OBJECTIVES A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effectiveness of atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone) as a chemoprophylactic agent against malaria. METHODS The data sources searched for this study included Cochrane systematic reviews (on infectious diseases), MEDLINE and EMBASE, Web of Knowledge and Annals of Tropical Medicine. All unconfounded randomized controlled trials assessing the ch...

BACKGROUND Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) were developed for primary and secondary prevention of sudden cardiac death. However, ICD recipients' mortality is significantly predicted by their quality of life (QOL). The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of psycho-educational interventions on QOL in patients with ICDs. METHODS We systematically searched PubMed, ...

The Fluids in Resuscitation of Severe Trauma (FIRST) study meets all of the criteria for assessment as a low risk of bias study, contrary to the unsupported allegations by Bayer and Reinhardt. We dispute the letter from Bayer and Reinhart together with the response from He et al. [1]. Bayer and Reinhart claim that the FIRST study [2] has a high risk of bias and cite two non-peer-reviewed letter...

PURPOSE This study aimed to systematically review the highest level of evidence on anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction with bone-patellar tendon-bone (BPTB) autografts with patellar tendon defect closure versus no closure after surgery. METHODS We performed a systematic review of multiple medical databases using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (P...