Table of contents

Therapeutics

• Systematic review with meta-analysis: B-type natriuretic peptide-guided therapy for chronic heart failure reduces all-cause mortality compared with usual care but does not affect all-cause hospitalisation or survival free of hospitalisation (5 August, 2010) Free

  A Mark Richards
• Randomised controlled trial: Antibiotics provide no additional short-term benefit to surgical management of paediatric skin abscesses (19 July, 2010)

  Jason G Newland, Joshua C Herigon
• Systematic review: People with lumbar disc herniation and associated radiculopathy benefit more from microdiscectomy than advice in the short term, although there is no difference in the long term (28 July, 2010) Free

  Scott D Daffner
• Randomised controlled trial: Early therapeutic exercise in the first week after grade 1 or 2 ankle sprain improves subjective ankle function compared to standard RICE treatment (7 July, 2010)

  Rogier M van Rijn
• Randomised controlled trial: Intensive lowering of systolic blood pressure to a target of less than 120 mm Hg has no effect on the rate of fatal and non-fatal major cardiovascular events in high-risk patients with type 2 diabetes (28 July, 2010)

  Atul Chugh, George Bakris
• PHYLLIS randomised controlled trial: In hypertensive people treated with an antihypertensive, concomitant statin administration has no additional effect on blood pressure (7 July, 2010)

  Abhimanyu Beri, Tahmeed Contractor
• Randomised controlled trial: In older patients with hip fracture, extended physiotherapy reduces falls compared with standard physiotherapy, and high dose cholecalciferol reduces hospital readmissions compared with lower dose (22 July, 2010)

  Kerrie M Sanders
• DANAMI-2 randomised controlled trial: Primary percutaneous coronary intervention in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction is more effective than fibrinolysis at reducing the composite outcome of death or reinfarction after 8 years (5 August, 2010)

  Ali Emin Denktas
• Randomised controlled trial: In permanent atrial fibrillation, lenient rate control is not inferior to strict rate control for preventing cardiovascular morbidity and mortality (30 July, 2010)

  Brian Olshansky, Renee M Sullivan
• Randomised controlled trial: Benzodiazepines provide no additional benefit over physiotherapy and analgesia in acute lumbar disc prolapse (31 August, 2010)

  Antonio Memeo, Leopoldo Pedretti
• Randomised controlled trial: A single botulinum toxin injection at a precise anatomic point on the forearm reduces pain at rest, compared to placebo injection in patients with chronic refractory lateral epicondylitis (10 August, 2010)

  Bill Vicenzino, Brooke K Coombes