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High-level Evidence (high-level + evidence)
Selected Abstracts5-Aminosalicylic acid (mesalazine) use in Crohn's disease: A survey of the opinions and practice of Australian gastroenterologistsINFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASES, Issue 8 2007Richard B. Gearry MD Abstract Background: The use of 5-aminosalicylate (5-ASA) drugs in Crohn's disease (CD) is controversial, with their continuing apparent widespread use despite high-level evidence indicating marginal benefit at best and international guidelines recommending limited indications. Methods: In order to understand how clinicians translate the evidence base into clinical practice, we surveyed a cross-section of Australian gastroenterologists to determine opinions and prescribing patterns of 5-ASA drugs in CD. Results: In all, 42% of 285 gastroenterologists who were sent a questionnaire by e-mail responded. Five (4%) never use 5-ASA drugs in CD. The drugs are most commonly prescribed for patients with colonic (96%) or ileocolonic (92%) disease location, inflammatory disease behavior (80%), and mild disease activity (97%). The majority (64%) use a dose of 1,3 g/day, but only 6% use over 4.5 g/day. Less than one-half use 5-ASA drugs as maintenance following surgical resection, but most use it for inducing remission alone (70%) or in combination with other drugs (90%), and continue its use for maintenance. Side effects are thought to be infrequent (62%) or rare (20%) and few common side effects are believed to be serious. Respondents estimated that over 90% of patients were nonadherent to prescribed 5-ASA regimens at least 50% of the time. While 84% believed that 5-ASA drugs were effective in CD, only 58% believed that they were cost-effective. Conclusions: In Australia 5-ASA drugs are extensively prescribed for CD at relatively low doses without expectation of patient adherence. Current evidence and guidelines has had little apparent impact on clinical practice. The cost implications are considerable. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2007) [source] Systematic review of the effectiveness of primary care nursingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING PRACTICE, Issue 1 2009Helen Keleher This paper reports on a systematic review that sought to answer the research question: What is the impact of the primary and community care nurse on patient health outcomes compared with usual doctor-led care in primary care settings? A range of pertinent text-words with medical subject headings were combined and electronic databases were searched. Because of the volume of published articles, the search was restricted to studies with high-level evidence. Overall, 31 relevant studies were identified and included in the review. We found modest international evidence that nurses in primary care settings can provide effective care and achieve positive health outcomes for patients similar to that provided by doctors. Nurses are effective in care management and achieve good patient compliance. Nurses are also effective in a more diverse range of roles including chronic disease management, illness prevention and health promotion. Nevertheless, there is insufficient evidence about primary care nurses' roles and impact on patient health outcomes. [source] Review of nursing care for patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: a patient journey approachJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 17 2009John X Rolley Aim., To evaluate the existing literature to inform nursing management of people undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Background., Percutaneous coronary intervention is an increasingly important revascularisation strategy in coronary heart disease management and can be an emergent, planned or rescue procedure. Nurses play a critical role in delivering care in both the independent and collaborative contexts of percutaneous coronary intervention management. Design., Systematic review. Method., The method of an integrative literature review, using the conceptual framework of the patient journey, was used to describe existing evidence and to determine important areas for future research. The electronic data bases CINAHL, Medline, Cochrane and the Joanna Briggs data bases were searched using terms including: (angioplasty, transulminal, percutaneous coronary), nursing care, postprocedure complications (haemorrhage, ecchymosis, haematoma), rehabilitation, emergency medical services (transportation of patients, triage). Results., Despite the frequency of the procedure, there are limited data to inform nursing care for people undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Currently, there are no widely accessible nursing practice guidelines focusing on the nursing management in percutaneous coronary intervention. Findings of the review were summarised under the headings: Symptom recognition; Treatment decision; Peri-percutaneous coronary intervention care, describing the acute management and Postpercutaneous coronary intervention management identifying the discharge planning and secondary prevention phase. Conclusions., Cardiovascular nurses need to engage in developing evidence to support guideline development. Developing consensus on nurse sensitive patient outcome indicators may enable benchmarking strategies and inform clinical trial design. Relevance to clinical practice., To improve the care given to individuals undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, it is important to base practice on high-level evidence. Where this is lacking, clinicians need to arrive at a consensus as to appropriate standards of practice while also engaging in developing evidence. This must be considered, however, from the central perspective of the patient and their family. [source] Use of topical misoprostol to reduce radiation-induced mucositis: Results of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trialJOURNAL OF MEDICAL IMAGING AND RADIATION ONCOLOGY, Issue 5 2006MJ Veness Summary Radiation-induced mucositis is an acute reaction of the mucosa of patients undergoing head and neck radiotherapy. It can have debilitating and dose-limiting consequences. There is no consensus on an accepted intervention that significantly reduces its severity. Misoprostol is a synthetic prostaglandin E1 analogue, with properties of a mucosal cytoprotectant. We designed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of misoprostol in patients with head and neck cancer. The aim of this study was to determine if topical misoprostol was effective in reducing the severity of radiation-induced mucositis in patients receiving radical dose radiotherapy. The effect of this intervention on a patient's general well-being was also investigated. The primary end-point of the study was the incidence of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group grade 3 mucositis. Between 1999 and 2002, 83 patients were recruited into the study at Westmead and Nepean Hospitals, Sydney. Forty-two patients were randomized to receive misoprostol and 41 to receive a placebo. Most patients received radiotherapy in the adjuvant setting (52 of the 83) and had either an oral cavity (42 of the 83) or an oropharyngeal (16 of the 83) cancer. We could not identify any significant difference in the incidence of severe mucositis based on whether patients were allocated to receive misoprostol or placebo. There was no significant difference in the mean area under the mucositis curve (13.2 vs 16.6; P = 0.1). Patients allocated to misoprostol did report slightly increased soreness (7.6 vs 6.9; P = 0.04) and a greater use of analgesics. However, this difference did not translate into a worse feeling of general well-being as measured by a simple visual analogue scale (5.8 vs 5.2; P = 0.3). In conclusion, we were unable to identify a reduction in radiation-induced mucositis in patients receiving misoprostol. There is a paucity of high-level evidence on potentially useful interventions and a continued need for new and innovative research, incorporating quality-of-life measurements, in patients experiencing radiation-induced mucositis. [source] Use of devices to prevent subluxation of the shoulder after strokePHYSIOTHERAPY RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2005Anchalee Foongchomcheay Abstract Background and Purpose. Supportive devices, such as slings, wheelchair or chair attachments and orthoses, have been used for many years by physiotherapists to support the affected shoulder after stroke. The purpose of the present paper was to examine the alignment between current practice with evidence for the use of supportive devices in the prevention of subluxation of the shoulder after stroke and to provide guidance for clinical practice and future research. Method. In order to determine the evidence regarding the most appropriate supportive devices to prevent subluxation after stroke, a systematic review was undertaken following the guidelines set out by the Cochrane Collaboration. In order to determine current practice with regard to the most commonly used supportive devices to prevent subluxation after stroke, a questionnaire was designed and administered for use in Australia. Results. The collar-and-cuff sling is the most commonly used sling. However, a small amount of lower-level evidence shows that the collar-and-cuff sling only reduces subluxation by half, suggesting that it may not be the most effective to use for prevention. In contrast, this evidence supports the use of wheelchair or chair attachments. Conclusions. We found that there was a lack of high-level evidence to guide clinical practice. In order to determine evidence-based practice for the prevention of shoulder subluxation, there is a need to test the efficacy of the most promising supportive devices based on available evidence. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||