DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT: TONSILS AND ADENOIDS—A PROBLEM REVISITED

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-817
Author(s):  
Robert J. Haggerty

Anyone who is sure of the indications for removing tonsils and adenoids is surely naive and anyone who attempts to write about it impolitic, for little in medicine elicits more strong or divergent opinions. Living in Rochester, New York, where Dr. Albert Kaiser carried out his courageous community studies1 over 40 years ago may give me some license to write about the problem but should also keep one humble for even here, its hometown, the study is little known. In the early 1920's Kaiser was able to organize a community-wide program which accomplished the incredible job of removing tonsils and adenoids from 10,000 of the then 50,000 children in Rochester in a 5-month period. The major follow-up data2 were on 5,000 of these children who had the operation and were able to be followed for 10 years after operation. Comparison was made between a subsample of 2,200 of these and a like number who had been recommended for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy but never had had the operation. While there are many defects in this study compared to the ideal controlled trial, it would comfort Dr. Kaiser to know that no other study since has been able to do much better, since clinical trials to determine the effectiveness of an operation can rarely be controlled in the sense of random assignment of patients and practically never double blind (this would require sham operations). It is worth reading Kaiser's works again for, though widely touted as a condemnation of the procedure, they are in fact no such thing.

2010 ◽  
Vol 125 (2) ◽  
pp. AB58 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.M. Jones ◽  
A.M. Scurlock ◽  
L. Pons ◽  
T.T. Perry ◽  
A.R. Morgan ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 219256822098547
Author(s):  
R. F. M. R. Kersten ◽  
F. C. Öner ◽  
M. P. Arts ◽  
M. Mitroiu ◽  
K. C. B. Roes ◽  
...  

Study Design: Randomized controlled trial. Objectives: Lumbar interbody fusion with cages is performed to provide vertebral stability, restore alignment, and maintain disc and foraminal height. Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) is commonly used. Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is an alternative material with good osteointegrative properties. This study was designed to assess if Si3N4 cages perform similar to PEEK. Methods: A non-inferiority double-blind multicenter RCT was designed. Patients presenting with chronic low-back pain with or without leg pain were included. Single- or double-level instrumented transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) using an oblique PEEK or Si3N4 cage was performed. The primary outcome was the Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire (RMDQ). The non-inferiority margin for the RMDQ was 2.6 points on a scale of 24. Secondary outcomes included the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire (ODI), Visual Analogue Scales (VAS), SF-36 Physical Function, patient and surgeon Likert scores, radiographic evaluations for subsidence, segmental motion, and fusion. Follow-up was planned at 3, 6, 12, and 24-months. Results: Ninety-two patients were randomized ( i.e. 48 to PEEK and 44 to Si3N4). Both groups showed good clinical improvements on the RMDQ scores of up to 5-8 points during follow-up. No statistically significant differences were observed in clinical and radiographic outcomes. Mean operative time and blood loss were statistically significantly higher for the Si3N4 cohort. Although not statistically significant, there was a higher incidence of complications and revisions associated with the Si3N4 cage. Conclusions: There was insufficient evidence to conclude that Si3N4 was non-inferior to PEEK.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 1257-1263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim A. Hayes ◽  
Christine Jackson ◽  
Denise M. Dickinson ◽  
Audra L. Miller

Purpose: To test whether an antismoking parenting program provided to parents who had quit smoking for ≥24 hours increased parents’ likelihood of remaining abstinent 2 and 3 years postbaseline. Design: Two-group randomized controlled trial with 3-year follow-up. Setting: Eleven states (Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and Vermont). Participants: Five hundred seventy-seven adults (286 treatment and 291 control) who had smoked ≥10 cigarettes daily at baseline, had quit smoking for ≥24 hours after calling a Quitline, and were parents of an 8- to 10-year-old child; 358 (62%) completed the 2-year follow-up interview, and 304 (53%) completed the 3-year follow-up interview. Intervention: Theory-driven, home-based, self-help parenting program. Measures: Sociodemographic, smoking history, and 30-day point prevalence. Analysis: Multivariable regression analyses tested for group differences in 30-day abstinence. Attriters were coded as having relapsed. Results: Between-group differences in abstinence rates were 5.6% and 5.9% at 2 and 3 years, respectively. Treatment group parents had greater odds of abstinence, an effect that was significant only at the latter time point (odds ratio [OR] = 1.49, P = .075 at 2 years; OR = 1.70, P = .026 at 3 years). Conclusions: This study obtained preliminary evidence that engaging parents who recently quit smoking as agents of antismoking socialization of children has the potential to reduce the long-term odds of relapse.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bijan Pirnia ◽  
Raheleh Masoudi ◽  
Melika Sefidrood ◽  
Elham Zarghami ◽  
Kambiz Pirnia ◽  
...  

Background: Lung cancer (LC) is a leading cause of cancer morbidity and mortality worldwide. One of the predisposing factors for LC is smoking. Metformin is the first line for diabetes treatment and is shown that it can be used for nicotine withdrawal syndrome reduction. Objectives: This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of metformin on reducing the nicotine withdrawal syndrome and increasing nicotine abstinence in patients with LC. Methods: In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial from February 2018 to May 2019, 53 patients with LC were selected by respondent-driven sampling (RDS), and were assigned into two experimental and wait-list control (WLC) group through block randomization (BR). After 3 weeks of baseline assessment, metformin or placebo was prescribed in the form of escalating doses. Cigarette Withdrawal Scale (CWS-21), urinary cotinine levels, and exhaled carbon monoxide (eCO) levels were evaluated in 16 steps by the repeated measures. The primary outcomes include metformin efficacy on cigarette withdrawal syndrome and secondary outcomes include urinary cotinine levels and eCO level. The data were analyzed by generalized estimation equation (GEE), chi-square, and Atlas-Ti5. Results: The primary outcomes showed that the metformin group had significant effects on the improvement of depression, anxiety, craving, irritability, and appetite, difficulty in concentrating, appetite-weight, and insomnia during the 12-weeks treatment period (all P's < 0.05). In addition, only cravings scores remained constant until the 6-month follow-up (P < 0.05). Secondary outcomes demonstrated that urinary cotinine levels and eCO level significantly decreased in the metformin group (all P's < 0.05). However, this decrease did not remain constant at both levels until the 6-month follow-up (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Metformin had a clinical potential for reducing nicotine withdrawal. However, more studies are needed.


Author(s):  
Jabeena Khazir ◽  
Tariq Maqbool ◽  
Bilal Ahmad Mir

: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus strain and the causative agent of COVID-19 was identified to have emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 [1]. This pandemic situation and magnitude of suffering has led to global effort to find out effective measures for discovery of new specific drugs and vaccines to combat this deadly disease. In addition to many initiatives to develop vaccines for protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2, some of which are at various stages of clinical trials researchers worldwide are currently using available conventional therapeutic drugs with potential to combat the disease effectively in other viral infections and it is believed that these antiviral drugs could act as a promising immediate alternative. Remdesivir (RDV), a broad-spectrum anti-viral agent, initially developed for the treatment of Ebola virus (EBOV) and known to show promising efficiency in in vitro and in vivo studies against SARS and MERS coronaviruses, is now being investigated against SARS-CoV-2. On May 1, 2020, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for RDV to treat COVID-19 patients [2]. A number of multicentre clinical trials are on-going to check the safety and efficacy of RDV for the treatment of COVID-19. Results of published double blind, and placebo-controlled trial on RDV against SARS-CoV-2, showed that RDV administration led to faster clinical improvement in severe COVID-19 patients compared to placebo. This review highlights the available knowledge about RDV as a therapeutic drug for coronaviruses and its preclinical and clinical trials against COVID-19.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-210
Author(s):  
Raphael E. Strauss ◽  
David L. Wertheim ◽  
Vincent R. Bonagura ◽  
David J. Valacer

Objective. To evaluate the effects of aminophylline (Am) in children hospitalized with asthma. Methods. Prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Subjects were children between the ages of 5 and 18 years admitted for asthma exacerbation to either a tertiary care children's hospital or an innercity general hospital in New York. Exclusion criteria were admission to the intensive care unit, initial theophylline level &gt; 5 µg/dL, or the presence of other systemic disorders. All patients received nebulized albuterol therapy and intravenous glucocorticosteroids in standardized doses. Thirty-one patients were randomized to receive either an Am bolus followed by continuous Am infusion or placebo (P) bolus and infusion. The outcome variables were: duration of hospitalization, percent of predicted peak expiratory flow rates recorded at 12-hour intervals, number of albuterol treatments required, and adverse effects. Results. There were no significant differences at study entry in age, sex, race, number of previous hospital admissions, prior medications used, clinical symptom scores, or initial peak flow rates for the two groups. For 26 patients who completed this study, 15 patients in the P group were hospitalized for a mean duration of 2.33 ± 1.3 days, whereas 11 patients in the Am group required 2.58 ± 1.5 days. There were no significant differences between the two groups for hospital days, peak flow rates at any time interval, or amount of albuterol therapy required (P &gt; .2). In the Am group, 6 of the 14 patients who entered the study experienced significant adverse effects consisting of nausea, emesis, headache, abdominal pain, and palpitations. Only 1 of 17 patients in the P group had an adverse effect (P &lt;. 05). Conclusions. There is no benefit and considerable risk of adverse effects associated with the use of Am in hospitalized asthmatic children.


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