Value of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses in Surgery
Have you ever wondered why surgical specialties lag behind their medical counterparts in Evidence-Based medicine? Or what the specific challenges are for EBM in surgical specialties? This review, written by CET co-director Simon Knight and published in European Surgical Research this month, looks at the value of systematic reviews in surgery and some of the […]
Read moreThe explosion of systematic reviews – have we gone too far?
A fascinating recent paper from Professor John Ioannidis from Stanford University, published in the Milbank Quarterly, has examined the explosion in the publication of systematic reviews and meta-analyses over recent years. Publications between 1991 and 2014 increased by 2,728% for systematic reviews, and 2,635% for meta-analyses – far in excess of the rate of publication […]
Read moreJuly 2016 Transplant Trial Watch now available
The July 2016 edition of the Transplant Trial Watch is now available. This month, trials include long-term outcomes from BENEFIT-EXT, treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in renal transplant recipients and and in depth analysis of the VICTOR trial.
Read moreJoin the discussion: recipient obesity and outcome after renal transplantation
Two recent systematic reviews were published on this important topic. The review by Lafranca and colleagues entitled “Body mass index and outcome in renal transplant recipients: a systematic review and meta-analysis”(BMC Medicine 2015;13(1):111) included 56 studies. The authors concluded that “Several of the pooled outcome measurements show significant benefits for ‘low’ BMI (30 preferably should […]
Read moreSirolimus associated with less malignancy but an increased mortality after kidney transplantation
A group from Ottawa, led by Greg Knoll, have published an important systematic review of risk of cancer in patients who had sirolimus included with their immunosuppression de novo as well as those who were converted at some stage after transplantation to sirolimus. The study also included a meta-analysis of individual patient data. This was […]
Read more22 Pages of Nothing
I was very amused (and slightly horrified) by the Cochrane Hepato-Biliary group’s most recent offering regarding surgical resection versus liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma. The 22-page review details elegantly the background to the review, gives an in depth search strategy and description of excluded studies and then concludes: “There are no randomised clinical trials comparing […]
Read moreMultiple reviews of machine perfusion find reduced delayed function of kidneys but no effect on graft survival
A group from Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China has recently published a systematic review comparing the outcomes in patients receiving kidneys from donation after cardiac death (DCD). Deng et al conducted a meta-analysis using the results from four randomised controlled trials (351 kidneys). Machine perfusion reduced the rate of delayed graft function compared to static […]
Read moreAlemtuzumab as induction therapy in renal transplantation: differing results from systematic reviews.
Re: Alemtuzumab induction in renal transplantation: A meta-analysis and systemic review. Zhang X, Huang H, Han S, Fu S, Wang L. Transpl Immunol. 2012 Oct;27(2-3):63-8 A recent systematic review and meta-analysis has been published in Transplant Immunology. The review by Zhang et al assesses the evidence for the use of Alemtuzumab as induction therapy in renal transplantation. […]
Read moreResearch fellow awarded MSc in Surgical Sciences
Philip Macklin was awarded an MSc in Surgical Sciences jointly from the University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons in June of this year, with distinction. Working under the supervision of the CET, his dissertation was entitled “A Systematic Review of the Use of Rituximab in Renal Transplantation”. He is now preparing manuscripts […]
Read moreSystematic Review of Preservation Solutions for Static Cold Storage of Kidneys
We have recently completed a systematic review of preservation solutions for the static cold storage of kidney allografts (this was presented at the recent ESOT meeting and has been accepted for publication subject to satisfactory revision). We used MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library and the Transplant Library to perform the literature search. Searches combined MeSH […]
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