OBJECTIVE A randomised controlled trial was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture in comparison with steroid in treatment of idiopathic peripheral facial paralysis (Bell's palsy). METHODS A total of 119 patients attending Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic of Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital from February 2003 to December 2005 were randomly allocated to groups of acupuncture, st...

BACKGROUND European guidelines on fertility care emphasize that subfertile couples should receive information about their chances of a natural conception and should not be exposed to unnecessary treatments and risks. Prognostic models can help to estimate their chances and select couples with a good prognosis for tailored expectant management (TEM). Nevertheless, TEM is not always practiced. Th...

The overall aim of this thesis is to gain a deeper understanding of antenatal care by disclosing aspects of topics, meanings and the participants' ways of relating in midwifery consultations in a Swedish primary care setting. To accomplish this video recordings were made of five antenatal midwives' consecutive consultations with one expectant/new mother/father from the initial 'booking' in earl...

Introduction Women who have undergone radical trachelectomy as a fertility-sparing treatment for early-stage cervical cancer may be at higher risk retained tissues after early-term miscarriage due to cerclage or necrosis. Dilatation and curettage aspiration present additional risks in these women. The aim of this study was assess the efficacy expectant management early pregnancy trachelectomy. ...

OBJECTIVE A systematic review of studies assessing the effectiveness of acupuncture-type interventions (moxibustion, acupuncture, or electro-acupuncture) on acupuncture point BL 67 to correct breech presentation compared to expectant management, based on controlled trials. DATA SOURCES Articles published from 1980 to May 2007 in databases of Medline, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of C...

Most decision models published in the medical literature take a risk-neutral perspective. Under risk neutrality, the utility of a gamble is equivalent to its expected value and the marginal utility of living a given unit of time is the same regardless of when it occurs. Most patients, however, are not risk-neutral. Not only does risk aversion affect decision analyses when tradeoffs between shor...

BACKGROUND Cholecystectomy has been recognized as the treatment of choice for symptomatic gallbladder stone disease. Not all patients are cured by an operation and the reason for having the gallbladder removed may rest on common practice rather than evidence-based medicine. The aim was to compare cholecystectomy with observation (watchful waiting) in patients with uncomplicated symptomatic GBS ...

The management of early pregnancy loss used to be based largely in the hospital setting, but it has shifted to the outpatient setting, allowing women to remain under the care of their family physician throughout the miscarriage process. Up to 15 percent of recognized pregnancies end in miscarriage, and as many as 80 percent of miscarriages occur in the first trimester, with chromosomal abnormal...