Table of contents

Therapeutics

• Randomised controlled trial: Hydroxycarbamide for very young children with sickle cell anaemia: no effect on the primary outcomes of spleen or kidney function, but evidence for decreased pain and dactylitis, with minimal toxicity (3 September, 2011)

  Deepa Manwani
• Randomised controlled trial: Randomised trial of radical prostatectomy versus watchful waiting finds reduced risk for death but uncertainty still reigns (23 August, 2011) Free

  John Concato, Peter Guarino
• Systematic review: Systematic review of observational studies finds increased risk of fracture among older adults taking a proton pump inhibitor (18 August, 2011)

  Peter Vestergaard
• Systematic review and meta-analysis: Oxygen may reduce dyspnoea in people with COPD who have mild or no hypoxaemia (4 September, 2011)

  James K Stoller
• Randomised controlled trial: The administration of corticosteroids to 34–36-week pregnant women at risk of imminent delivery does not reduce the risk of respiratory disorders in the newborn (26 September, 2011)

  Kellie Estelle Murphy
• Systematic review and meta-analysis: Cardiac resynchronisation therapy reduces mortality in patients with heart failure but questions remain (7 July, 2011)

  Matthew Luckie, Rajdeep S Khattar
• Randomised controlled trial: In two parallel pragmatic equivalence trials, leukotriene receptor antagonists as initial therapy for asthma compared with inhaled corticosteroids and as add on therapy to ICS compared with adding long-acting β agonists provided equivalent short-term asthma quality of life but were associated with more medication switches (26 September, 2011)

  J Mark FitzGerald
• Randomised controlled trial: Early (at 34–35 weeks) external cephalic version reduced the risk of non-cephalic (breech) presentation at birth but has no effect on risk of caesarean section (26 September, 2011)

  Peng Chiong Tan
• Systematic review and meta-analysis: Warming local anaesthetic prior to injection reduces injection pain (25 October, 2011)

  David Leaper
• Randomised controlled trial: Ovarian cancer screening has no effect on disease-specific mortality (26 September, 2011)

  Usha Menon
• Randomised controlled trial: A 2-year early childhood psychosocial stimulation programme improves cognitive outcomes and decreases violent behaviour at 22 years for children with growth retardation (26 September, 2011)

  Richard E Tremblay
• Cohort study: Cohort analysis finds that the proportion of people who meet high risk criteria for colorectal, breast or prostate cancer screening based on family history increases between age 30 and 50 (30 September, 2011)

  Harvey J Murff
• Randomised controlled trial: Management of patients hospitalised with community-acquired pneumonia: dexamethasone reduces length of stay by 1 day (26 September, 2011)

  G Umberto Meduri, Marco Confalonieri
• Randomised controlled trial: In patients hospitalised with acute heart failure, nesiritide, compared with placebo, is not associated with improvements in dyspnoea or 30-day rehospitalisation or mortality (26 September, 2011)

  Sacha P Salzberg
• Randomised controlled trial: In selected lower risk patients with acute pulmonary embolism, outpatient treatment is not associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes compared with standard inpatient care (11 October, 2011)

  Philip Stephen Wells
• Systematic review and meta-analysis: Intensive statin therapy, compared with moderate dose, increases risk of new onset diabetes but decreases risk of cardiovascular events (26 September, 2011)

  Swapnil N Rajpathak