Cochrane neonatal systematic reviews: a survey of the evidence for neonatal therapies☆
Section snippets
Methods
This survey is based on the Cochrane neonatal reviews contained in The Cochrane Library, Disk Issue 3, 2001. The authors sorted these reviews by topic and listed them according to the subject tree structure as described in the CNRGs original statement of scope of work. For each review, data were extracted to address the following issues:
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A priori statement of objectives
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Concordance of review methodology with the CNRGs policies for the conduct of systematic reviews
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Characteristics of included
Growth of output of Cochrane Neonatal Review Group
Fig. 1 shows the steady increase over the past 5 years in the numbers of protocols, reviews, and review updates added to the Neonatal Module of The Cochrane Library. Early, the growth was most striking in the number of protocols; later, in the number of completed reviews and, most recently, in the number of review updates.
Issue 3, 2001, the issue of The Cochrane Library on which this survey is based, contains 113 completed systematic reviews prepared by 108 members of the CNRG. Of these, 3
Discussion
The science of systematically reviewing a body of data has grown rapidly over the past 20 years, although Chalmers et al [8] point to early examples of research synthesis dating from at least 100 years ago. In 1904, Pearson [9] reviewed the correlations between antityphoid inoculation and immunity (five studies) and between inoculation and mortality (six studies), and synthesized the data by calculating the average correlation coefficient for each set of studies. A scientifically more
Summary
A survey is reported of 113 systematic reviews of therapies in neonatology, based on 559 eligible randomized trials in total. These reviews were prepared by the CNRG and were published in the Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2001. The median number of included trials per review was 3 (range 0 to 32) and participants 207 (range 0 to 5460). Among 90 reviews with a categorical primary outcome, the median number of outcome events per review was 54 (range 1 to 1284). Among reviews finding a statistically
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Mike Clarke, David J. Henderson-Smart, and Linda L. Wright for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.
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Cited by (42)
When has enough evidence accumulated to change neonatal practice?
2015, Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal MedicineCitation Excerpt :Such hurdles may explain why neonatologists are perhaps still too slow to plan and conduct large and well-designed trials. In 2003, Sinclair pointed out that neonatal reviews in the Cochrane database included an average of 207 participants over a median of three trials [10]. This is far too small to generate precise estimates of benefit or harm.
Systematic cochrane reviews in neonatology: A critical appraisal
2013, Pediatrics and NeonatologyCitation Excerpt :However, and of note, our study also demonstrated that a substantial percentage of systematic Cochrane reviews were inconclusive and did not provide any recommendation with regard to a specific intervention. This is in line with previous reports on this subject.11,12 These reviews usually conclude that, following an extensive literature search and appraisal, “insufficient trial evidence was found to guide clinical practice”.12
Pharmacologic Adjuncts II. Exogenous Surfactants
2011, Assisted Ventilation of the NeonatePharmacologic adjuncts ii: Exogenous surfactants exogenous surfactants
2010, Assisted Ventilation of the Neonate: Expert Consult - Online and PrintDefinitions of neonatal sepsis: A long way to go
2006, Anales de Pediatria
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The authors are the administrator (DH) and editors (JS, MB, JH, RS) of the Cochrane Neonatal Review Group and are recipients of Contract N01-HD-6-3252 from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for the support of the preparation and maintenance of Cochrane neonatal reviews.