Objective To systematically review the impact of Beijing's comprehensive reform of medical consumption linkage on medical expenses, hospital services, and hospital income. Methods Databases including CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, CBM, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched to collect empirical research on evaluating the impact of Beijing's comprehensive reform of medical consumption linkage on patient medical expenses and hospital operation (service volume and income structure) from June 15th, 2019 to August 15th, 2021. A descriptive analysis was performed after two reviewers independently screened the literature and extracted data. Results A total of 23 studies were included, and most of them found a relatively small change in the average outpatient and emergency medical expenses after the reform. However, the average inpatient expenses in some hospitals showed an increasing trend; the service volume of most hospitals increased slightly, and the income structure was optimized (e.g., surgery and other medical technology services revenue and its proportion increased). Conclusion The comprehensive reform of the medical consumption linkage in Beijing is the practice of deepening the reform of the medical service price mechanism. Based on the summary of the reform effect, it is recommended to further improve the price mechanism, improve service quality, and promote hierarchical diagnosis and treatment.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the efficacy of different stimulation modalities of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) combined with SSRI in improving depressed mood after stroke using network meta-analysis. MethodsThe PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CNKI, VIP, CBM and WanFang Data databases were electronically searched to collect randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to the objectives from inception to October 1, 2022. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of the included studies. Network meta-analysis was then performed by using R 4.2.1software. ResultsA total of 25 RCTs involving 2 152 patients were included. Four types of rTMS stimulation combined with SSRIs were included: high-frequency stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal (l-DLPFC), low-frequency stimulation of l-DLPFC, low-frequency stimulation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal (r-DLPFC), and low-frequency stimulation of the bilateral DLPFC. The results of the network meta-analysis showed that the effect of combining four stimulation methods with SSRI in treating depression was better than that of SSRI alone (P<0.05). Probability sorting results showed that low-frequency stimulated bilateral DLPFC (88.9%) > low-frequency stimulated l-DLPFC (63.1%) > high-frequency stimulation l-DLPFC (57.1%) > low-frequency stimulation r-DLPFC (40.4%). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of adverse reactions between the four stimulation methods combined with SSRI and the use of SSRI alone (P>0.05). Conclusion rTMS combined with SSRIs is better than SSRIs alone in improving depressed mood after stroke. Low-frequency rTMS stimulation of bilateral DLPFC may be the best. Meanwhile, the safety of different stimulation methods is good.
Objectives To assess the effects of alpha-glucosidase inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Method We searched The Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Current Contents, LILACS, databases of ongoing trials, reference lists of reviews on the topic of alpha-glucosidase inhibitors and we contacted experts and manufacturers for additional trials. Date of most recent search: December 2003 (Current Contents) and April 2003 (other databases). Randomised controlled trials of at least 12 weeks duration comparing alpha-glucosidase inhibitor monotherapy in patients with type 2 diabetes with any other intervention and that included at least one of the following outcomes: mortality, morbidity, quality of life, glycemic control, lipids, insulin levels, body weight, adverse events. Two reviewers read all abstracts, assessed quality and extracted data independently. Discrepancies were resolved by consensus or by the judgement of a third reviewer. A statistician checked all extracted data entrance in the database. We attempted to contact all authors for data clarification. Results We included 41 trials (8130 participants), 30 investigated acarbose, seven miglitol, one trial voglibose and three trials compared different alpha-glucosidase inhibitors. Study duration was 24 weeks in most cases and only two studies lasted amply longer than one year. We found only few data on mortality, morbidity and quality of life. Acarbose had a clear effect on glycemic control compared to placebo: glycated haemoglobin –0.77% (95% confidence interval –0.90 to –0.64), fasting blood glucose –1.1 mmol/L (95% confidence interval –1.4 to –0.9), post-load blood glucose –2.32 mmol/L (95% confidence interval –2.73 to –1.92). The effect on glycated haemoglobin by acarbose was not dose-dependent. We found a decreasing effect on post-load insulin and no clinically relevant effects on lipids or body weight. Adverse effects were mostly of gastro-intestinal origin and dose dependent. Compared to sulphonylurea, acarbose decreased fasting and post-load insulin levels by –24.8 pmol/L (95% confidence interval –43.3 to –6.3) and –133.2 pmol/L (95% confidence interval –184.5 to –81.8) respectively and acarbose caused more adverse effects. Conclusions It remains unclear whether alpha-glucosidase inhibitors influence mortality or morbidity in patients with type 2 diabetes. Conversely, they have a significant effect on glycemic control and insulin levels, but no statistically significant effect on lipids and body weight. These effects are less sure when alpha-glucosidase inhibitors are used for a longer duration. Acarbose dosages higher than 50 mg TID offer no additional effect on glycated haemoglobin but more adverse effects instead. Compared to sulphonylurea, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors lower fasting and post-load insulin levels and have an inferior profile regarding glycemic control and adverse effects.
Objective To evaluate the efficacy of intravertebral analgesia for external cephalic version. Methods We electronically searched The Cochrane Library (Issue 4, 2009), PubMed (1980 to 2009), Ovid MEDLINE (1950 to 2009), Ovid EBM Database (1991 to 2009), EMbase (1980 to 2009), CBM (1978 to 2009) and CNKI (1979 to 2009) to collect literature about intravertebral analgesia for external cephalic version. We screened randomized controlled trials (RCTs) according to the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data and evaluated the quality of the included studies, and then performed meta-analyses by using RevMan 5.0.13 software. Results Seven RCTs involving 620 women met the inclusion criteria. Five trials were of relatively high quality, and 1 of low quality and 2 not clear. The result of meta-analyses showed that intravertebral analgesia was superior in external cephalic version with a RR 1.53 and 95%CI 1.24 to 1.88. Conclusion Intravertebral analgesia can increase the successful rate of external cephalic version in the treatment of breech presentation compared with intravenous medicine for systematic use or no analgesia.
ObjectiveZero-events studies frequently occur in systematic reviews of adverse events, which consist of an important source of evidence. We aimed to examine how evidence of zero-events studies was utilized in the meta-analyses of systematic reviews of adverse events.MethodsWe conducted a survey of systematic reviews published in two periods: January 1, 2015 to January 1, 2020 and January 1, 2008, to April 25, 2011. Databases were searched for systematic reviews that conducted at least one meta-analysis of any healthcare intervention and used adverse events as the exclusive outcome. An adverse event was defined as any untoward medical occurrence in a patient or subject in healthcare practice. We summarized the frequency of occurrence of zero-events studies in eligible systematic reviews and how these studies were dealt with in the meta-analyses of these systematic reviews.ResultsWe included 640 eligible systematic reviews. There were 406 (63.45%) systematic reviews involving zero-events studies in their meta-analyses, among which 389 (95.11%) involved single-arm-zero-events studies and 223 (54.93%) involved double-arm-zero-events studies. The majority (98.71%) of these systematic reviews incorporated single-arm-zero-events studies into the meta-analyses. On the other hand, the majority (76.23%) of them excluded double-arm-zero-events studies from the meta-analyses, of which the majority (87.06%) did not discuss the potential impact of excluding such studies. Systematic reviews published at present (2015-2020) tended to incorporate zero-events studies in meta-analyses than those published in the past (2008-2011), but the difference was not significant [proportion difference=–0.09, 95%CI (–0.21, 0.03), P=0.12].ConclusionSystematic review authors routinely treated studies with zero-events in both arms as "non-informative" carriers and excluded them from their reviews. Whether studies with no events are "informative" or not, largely depends on the methods and assumptions applied, thus sensitivity analyses using different methods should be considered in future meta-analyses.
Objective To evaluate the efficacy of posterior approach discectomy with and without fusion in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. Methods We searched MEDLINE (1950 to June 2007), OVID (1950 to April 2007), PUBMED, the China Biological Medicine Database (1978 to June 2007) and Wanfang Database (1981 to February 2007). We also handsearched several relevant journals for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-randomized controlled trials (quasi-RCTs) comparing posterior approach discectomy with and without fusion in the treatment of lumbar disc herniation. The quality of the included trials was assessed. The Cochrane Collaboration’s RevMan 4.2.8 software was used for statistical analysis. Results Nine eligible trials involving 1911 patients were included. The meta-analyses found no statistically significant differences between the two operative procedures in the incidence of postoperative leg pain [RR 0.94, 95%CI (0.69, 1.28)], the proportion of patients requiring re-operation [RR 0.77, 95% CI (0.57, 1.04)], the incidence of post-operative lumbar canal stenosis [RR 1.23, 95%CI (0.26, 5.86)], and the relapse rate at other intervertebral spaces [RR 1.05, 95%CI (0.49, 2.26)] (Pgt;0.05).There is statistically significant differences between the two group in the incidence of peri-operative complications [RR 1.46, 95%CI (1.06, 2.00)]. Discectomy plus fusion was superior to discectomy alone in incidence of postoperative back pain [RR 0.70, 95%CI (0.53, 0.94)], relapse rate at either intervertebral space [RR 0.30, 95%CI (0.18, 0.48)] and at the same intervertebral space [RR 0.12, 95%CI (0.04, 0.37)]. Conclusions Since all the included studies were controlled trials with a great potential for biases, high-quality, large-scale randomized controlled trials are required.