GEM/cochrane-simplification huggingface dataset:
Abstract: One trial involving 76 women who planned to have their babies delivered by caesarean section met the inclusion criteria, but data were available for only 64 women. This trial was of low quality with unclear allocation concealment and only a few main clinical outcomes reported for the women. The trial did not report any infant outcomes. It appears that music added to standard care during caesarean section under regional anaesthesia had some impact on pulse rate at the end of maternal contact with the neonate in the intra-operative period (MD -7.50 fewer beats per minute, 95% CI -14.08 to -0.92) and after completion of skin suture for the caesarean section (MD -7.37 fewer beats per minute, 95% CI -13.37 to -1.37). There was also an improvement in the birth satisfaction score (maximum possible score of 35) (MD of 3.38, 95%CI 1.59 to 5.17). Effects on other outcomes were either not significant or not reported in the one included trial. The findings indicate that music during planned caesarean section under regional anaesthesia may improve pulse rate and birth satisfaction score. However, the magnitude of these benefits is small and the methodological quality of the one included trial is questionable. Therefore, the clinical significance of music is unclear. More research is needed to investigate the effects of music during caesarean section under regional anaesthesia on both maternal and infant outcomes, in various ethnic pregnant women, and with adequate sample sizes.

Plain-language summary: The review findings indicate that listening to music during planned caesarean section under regional anaesthesia may improve pulse rates and birth satisfaction scores, although the effect sizes were not large enough to indicate a clinically beneficial effect. The review authors identified one controlled trial that randomly assigned 76 women who listened to their preferred music through earphones, or to standard care, but data were available for only 64 women. The music was provided from the beginning of anaesthesia to the end of surgery. The women's heart rates were reduced by some seven beats/minute when measured at the end of contact with the newborn during the intra-operative period and after the surgeon had completed skin suture. Birth satisfaction scores were increased by a mean of 3.4 points on a 35-point scale when women listened to music. Respiration rates were no different for the two groups and neither were levels of anxiety, which decreased at the end of contact with the newborn and again after closing the skin, with no clear difference with or without music. The trial was from Taiwan and reporting of trial methodology was poor.
Abstract: Two randomised controlled trials comparing elective birth at 37 weeks for women with an uncomplicated twin pregnancy, with expectant management were included, involving 271 women and 542 infants. One trial was at an overall low risk of bias, and one trial was at unclear risk of selection bias, performance bias and detection bias. There were no statistically significant differences identified between a policy of elective birth at 37 weeks' gestation and expectant management with regards to birth by caesarean section (two studies; 271 participants; risk ratio (RR) 1.05; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.83 to 1.32); perinatal death or serious perinatal morbidity (two studies; 542 infants; RR 0.34; 95% CI 0.01 to 8.35); or maternal death or serious maternal morbidity (one study; 235 women; RR 0.29; 95% CI 0.06 to 1.38). There were no statistically significant differences identified for the pre-specified secondary maternal and infant review outcomes reported by these two trials between the two treatment policies (including for: haemorrhage requiring blood transfusion; instrumental vaginal birth; meconium-stained liquor; Apgar score less than seven at five minutes; admission to neonatal intensive care; birthweight less than 2500 g; neonatal encephalopathy; and respiratory distress syndrome). While not a pre-specified review outcome, elective birth at 37 weeks, compared with expectant management, was shown to significantly reduce the risk of infants being born with a birthweight less than the third centile (one study; 470 infants; RR 0.30; 95% CI 0.13 to 0.68). Early birth at 37 weeks' gestation compared with ongoing expectant management for women with an uncomplicated twin pregnancy does not appear to be associated with an increased risk of harms, findings which are consistent with the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendations which advocate birth for women with a dichorionic twin pregnancy at 37 + 0 weeks' gestation. It is unlikely that sufficient clinical equipoise exists to allow for the randomisation of women to a later gestational age at birth.

Plain-language summary: Two randomised controlled trials were included in this review involving a total of 271 women with twin pregnancies at 37 weeks' gestation. One of the two trials (involving 235 women) was of high quality, and the quality of the second trial (involving 36 women) was unclear. There were no differences shown between the group of women who had an elective birth at 37 weeks' gestation and the group of women who waited for labour to start spontaneously for the outcomes: birth by caesarean section, perinatal (fetal or neonatal) death or serious perinatal morbidity, or maternal death or serious maternal morbidity. No other differences between the two groups of women were shown for other pregnancy and birth complications or for complications for the infant. Elective birth at 37 weeks' gestation compared with ongoing expectant management for women with uncomplicated twin pregnancies does not appear be associated with an increased risk of harms.
Abstract: Four trials were included in the review. Of these, two were randomised parallel studies, one was a crossover study and the other had a sequential design. A total of 84 patients were involved. Study quality was mixed and the studies were short (typically two weeks). All studies showed a similar direction and size of effect. In the randomised parallel studies, acetazolamide caused a metabolic acidosis and produced a non-significant fall in PCO2 (MD -0.41 kPa; 95% CI -0.91, 0.09; N=2) and a significant rise in PO2 (MD 1.54 kPa; 95% CI 0.97, 2.11; N=2). One study reported an improvement in sleep but there were no data concerning outcomes such as health status, symptoms, exacerbation rate, hospital admissions or deaths. Side effects were reported infrequently. An update search conducted in October 2005 did not identify any further studies. Acetazolamide can produce a small increase in arterial PO2 and fall in PCO2. These conclusions are drawn from a few small short studies that were not all of high quality. It is not known whether this physiological improvement is associated with clinical benefit.

Plain-language summary: The review of trials found that a few days of using acetazolamide can improve the level of oxygen in the blood of people with COPD. It is not clear if this leads to better outcomes, so more research is needed. Not enough data were reported on the safety of the drug.
Abstract: The evidence favoured five active strategies for inviting women into community breast cancer screening services: letter of invitation (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.92), mailed educational material (Odds Ratio(OR) 2.81, 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.96 to 4.02), letter of invitation plus phone call (OR 2.53, 95% CI 2.02 to 3.18), phone call (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.70 to 2.23), and training activities plus direct reminders for the women (OR 2.46, 95% CI 1.72 to 3.50). Home visits did not prove to be effective (OR 1.06, 95 % CI 0.80 to 1.40) and letters of invitation to multiple examinations plus educational material favoured the control group (OR 0.62, 95 % CI 0.32 to 1.20). Most active recruitment strategies for breast cancer screening programs examined in this review were more effective than no intervention. Combinations of effective interventions can have an important effect. Some costly strategies, as a home visit and a letter of invitation to multiple screening examinations plus educational material, were not effective. Further reviews comparing the effective interventions and studies that include cost-effectiveness, women's satisfaction and equity issues are needed.

Plain-language summary: The review of trials found that a letter of invitation, mailed educational material, a phone call and some combined actions (such as a letter of invitation plus a phone call and training activities plus reminders) all seem to increase numbers of women participating. However it is not known which of these work better. Other interventions (such as a home visit) have not been proven to work.
Abstract: We identified 15 studies (1550 patients). CRRT did not differ from IRRT with respect to in-hospital mortality (RR 1.01, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.12), ICU mortality (RR 1.06, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.26), number of surviving patients not requiring RRT (RR 0.99, 95% CI 0.92 to 1.07), haemodynamic instability (RR 0.48, 95% CI 0.10 to 2.28) or hypotension (RR 0.92, 95% CI 0.72 to 1.16) and need for escalation of pressor therapy (RR 0.53, 95% CI 0.26 to 1.08). Patients on CRRT were likely to have significantly higher mean arterial pressure (MAP) (MD 5.35, 95% CI 1.41 to 9.29) and higher risk of clotting dialysis filters (RR, 95% CI 8.50 CI 1.14 to 63.33). In patients who are haemodynamically stable, the RRT modality does not appear to influence important patient outcomes, and therefore the preference for CRRT over IRRT in such patients does not appear justified in the light of available evidence. CRRT was shown to achieve better haemodynamic parameters such as MAP. Future research should focus on factors such as the dose of dialysis and evaluation of newer promising hybrid technologies such as SLED. Triallists should follow the recommendations regarding clinical endpoints assessment in RCTs in ARF made by the Working Group of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative Working Group.

Plain-language summary: Our systematic review identified 15 randomised studies with 1550 patients comparing CRRT with IRRT. We did not find any difference between CRRT and IRRT with respect to mortality, renal recovery, and risk of haemodynamic instability or hypotension episodes.
Abstract: Four trials appeared to meet the inclusion criteria, but one was excluded because of poor methodology. The three remaining trials compared testosterone treatment with placebo in a total of 109 subjects with intermittent claudication or critical leg ischaemia. The most recent trial to meet the inclusion criteria dated from 1971. No trials were available which investigated the potentially beneficial effects of oestrogenic hormones in women with lower limb atherosclerosis. Testosterone therapy produced no significant improvement in tests of walking distance or in a variety of other objective tests for peripheral arterial disease, including venous filling time, muscle blood flow and plethysmography. The relative risk for subjective improvement in symptoms using the combined trial results was also non-significant (relative risk (RR) 1.10, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.81 to 1.48). There is no evidence to date that short-term testosterone treatment is beneficial in subjects with lower limb atherosclerosis. However, this might reflect limited data rather than the lack of a real effect.

Plain-language summary: Although four randomised controlled trials met the inclusion criteria, one was excluded because of poor methodology. The three remaining trials compared testosterone treatment with placebo in a total of 109 middle-aged to elderly people, predominantly men. The participants had symptoms of lower limb atherosclerosis, predominantly intermittent claudication. The trials were published from 1967 to 1971 and all took place in Denmark. Testosterone did not provide any clear improvement in the symptoms reported by the participants, walking distance or other objective tests for peripheral arterial disease including leg muscle blood flow. The dose of testosterone in the trials varied between 300 mg taken by mouth every two weeks for three months to a lower (100 mg) oral dose taken more often and 200 mg given by intramuscular injection, first weekly then every two weeks for six months. Side effects were poorly reported except for subjective sexual functioning, which did seem to improve with testosterone treatment. No trials investigated oestrogens in women with lower limb atherosclerosis. Trials by the Women's Health Initiative (published in 2004) have shown that oestrogen and progestin does not confer any protection against peripheral arterial disease in healthy postmenopausal women or reduce the risk of coronary events in postmenopausal women with coronary heart disease.
Abstract: In this update, no new trials were identified (08/2002).  Only one trial with 54 men lasting 240 days (with 330 days of follow up) met study inclusion criteria. There was a statistically significant change favoring allopurinol in patient-reported discomfort between the study and control groups at follow up. Between days 45 to 225, the mean score was -0.95 (SD 0.19) for the allopurinol group (seven men), compared with -0.47 (SD 0.21) for the placebo group (seven men). The weighted mean difference (WMD) was -0.48 (95% CI -0.690 to -0.270). The mean score between days 45-135 was -1.08 (SD 1.29) for the 25 men in the allopurinol group, compared with -0.21 (SD 0.97) for the 14 men in the control group. The WMD was -0.87 (95%CI -1.587 to -0.153). The allopurinol group had significantly less investigator graded prostate pain and had lower levels of serum urate, urine urate, and expressed prostatic secretion urate and xanthine. No significant differences between the two groups regarding leukocyte counts were found. No patient receiving allopurinol had any significant side effects. Three patients in the placebo group dropped out because of side effects. One small trial of allopurinol for treating chronic prostatitis showed improvements in patient-reported symptom improvement, investigator-graded prostate pain, and biochemical parameters. However, the data provided, the measures used, and the statistics presented do not make these findings convincing that changes in urine and prostatic secretion composition regarding purine and pyrimidine bases resulted in the relief of symptoms. Further studies of allopurinol treatment using standardized and validated outcomes measures and analyses are necessary to determine whether allopurinol is effective.

Plain-language summary: Only one small randomized trial of 54 men was included in this review. Based on the results of this trial, which used non-valid ways to measure symptom improvements, allopurinol cannot be recommended. Further studies of allopurinol treatment, enrolling larger numbers of men and using standard and validated measures to measure symptom improvements, are necessary to determine whether allopurinol is an effective treatment for chronic prostatitis.
Abstract: Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. Nine of them were RCTs. All studies involved physicians as participants (including postgraduate trainees), and one study also included other participants. Only two studies measured patient outcomes. Searching skills and/or frequency of use of electronic databases, mainly MEDLINE, were targeted in eight studies. Use of Internet for audit and feedback, and email for provider-patient communication, were targeted in two studies. Four studies showed small to moderate positive effects of the intervention on ICT adoption. Four studies were unable to demonstrate significant positive effects, and the two others showed mixed effects. No studies looked at the long-term effect or sustainability of the intervention. There is very limited evidence on effective interventions promoting the adoption of ICTs by healthcare professionals. Small effects have been reported for interventions targeting the use of electronic databases and digital libraries. The effectiveness of interventions to promote ICT adoption in healthcare settings remains uncertain, and more well designed trials are needed.

Plain-language summary: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are technologies that help gather, store, process and share information electronically.  Examples of ICTs are electronic medical records, medical journals and databases on the internet, videoconferencing for doctor appointments, or systems on the internet to give feedback to doctors so they can improve the care they provide.  ICTs have the potential to improve health care and the health of patients.  But even though computers are being used more and more in hospitals, not all health care professionals use ICTs.   For this reason, there are many strategies to try and promote the use of ICTs.  Strategies can include training groups of health care professionals to use a specific ICT, or teaching someone one-on-one to use an ICT, or simply providing training materials. A review of the effects of different strategies to promote the use of ICTs was conducted.  After searching for all relevant studies, 10 studies were found.  The evidence shows that some ways, such as group training, or one-on-one training sessions, or providing training materials, may improve the use of ICTs.  But overall, it is still uncertain whether some strategies are effective.  More research is needed.
Abstract: The search of four standard electronic databases yielded 119 potentially relevant studies but only 18 RCTs involving 1252 people were found suitable for statistical analysis. There was significant heterogeneity among trials and the majority of trials were of poor quality. The use of FG under skin flaps following breast and axillary surgery failed to reduce the incidence of postoperative seroma (risk ratio (RR) 1.02; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.90 to 1.16, P value = 0.73), mean volume of seroma (standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.25; 95% CI -0.92 to 0.42, P value = 0.46), wound infection (RR 1.05; 95% CI 0.63 to 1.77, P value = 0.84), postoperative complications (RR 1.13; 95% CI 0.63 to 2.04, P value = 0.68) and length of hospital stay (SMD -0.2; 95% CI -0.78 to 0.39, P value = 0.51). FG reduced the total volume of drained seroma (SMD -0.75, 95% CI -1.24 to -0.26, P value = 0.003) and duration of persistent seromas requiring frequent aspirations (SMD -0.59; CI 95% -0.95 to -0.23, P value = 0.001). FG did not influence the incidence of postoperative seroma, the mean volume of seroma, wound infections, complications and the length of hospital stays in people undergoing breast cancer surgery. Due to significant methodological and clinical diversity among the included studies this conclusion may be considered weak and biased. Therefore, a major multicentre and high-quality RCT is required to validate these findings.

Plain-language summary: We systematically analysed the published trials comparing the usefulness of FG as a small-vessel sealing agent. Eighteen randomised controlled trials on 1252 people were retrieved following bibliographic searches on standard medical databases. There were significant clinical and methodological differences among the included trials. The use of FG following breast and axillary surgery did not reduce the incidence of postoperative seroma, mean volume of seroma, wound infections, postoperative complications and the length of hospital stays. FG reduced the total volume of drained seroma and the duration of persistent seroma requiring frequent aspirations. This review showed no overall benefit of using FG. Although this conclusion is based on the combined analysis of 18 trials, the majority of these were of poor quality due to flaws in trial methods. Therefore, this conclusion should be taken cautiously and a major, multicentre, high-quality randomised controlled trial on people undergoing breast and axillary surgery for breast cancer is required to corroborate this conclusion.
Abstract: Cabergoline has been compared with placebo in two phase II (6 - 12 weeks) and one phase III randomised controlled trials (24 weeks). These were double-blind, parallel group, multicentre studies including 268 patients with Parkinson's disease and motor complications. The reduction of 1.14 hours (WMD; 95% CI -0.06, 2.33; p = 0.06) in off time in favour of cabergoline was not statistically significant. Inadequate data on dyskinesia was collected either on rating scales or as adverse event reporting to allow a conclusion to be drawn. A small but statistically significant advantage of cabergoline over placebo was seen in one study for UPDRS ADL (part II) score and UPDRS motor score. No such advantage was seen in one other study due to small numbers of patients and the comparatively low doses of cabergoline used. No significant differences in Schwab and England scale were seen in two studies. Levodopa dose reduction was significantly greater with cabergoline (WMD 149.6 mg/d; 95% CI 94.1, 205.1; p < 0.00001). There was a trend towards more dopaminergic adverse events with cabergoline but this did not reach statistical significance at the p < 0.01 level. However, there was a trend towards fewer withdrawals from cabergoline. In the management of the motor complications seen in Parkinson's disease, cabergoline can be used to reduce levodopa dose and modestly improve motor impairment and disability with an acceptable adverse event profile. These conclusions are based on, at best, medium term evidence.

Plain-language summary: Cabergoline has been compared with inactive placebo in two smaller and shorter (6 - 12 weeks) studies and one larger, medium term trial (24 weeks). These trials included 268 patients with Parkinson's disease and motor complications. The average reduction in the time patients spent in the immobile off state was 1.1 hours greater with cabergoline compared with placebo, although this was not statistically significant. Inadequate data on dyskinesia was collected to allow a conclusion to be drawn. A small but significant advantage of cabergoline over placebo was seen in one study for activities of daily living and physical functioning. No such advantage was seen in one other study due to small numbers of patients and the comparatively low doses of cabergoline used. Levodopa dose reduction was greater with cabergoline by 145 mg per day. There was a trend towards more side effects with cabergoline but towards fewer withdrawals from cabergoline treatment. In the management of the motor complications seen in Parkinson's disease, cabergoline can be used to reduce levodopa dose and modestly improve motor function and activities of daily living with an acceptable side effect profile. This is based on, at best, medium term evidence. Further long term trials are required to compare the newer with the older dopamine agonists, particularly in terms of quality of life and cost.