People wait longer than clinically recommended for specialist outpatient assessment in the public health system. 1 Governments are focused on redesigning service delivery, aiming to provide more flexible and patient-focused services, whilst increasing access to high-value care, at acceptably low costs. 2 Optimising and extending allied health practitioner (AHP) scope of practice can provide a responsive workforce whilst maintaining safe and quality health care. 3 Expanded roles for AHPs have gained popularity over the last decade, however, are not widely accepted as a sustainable alternative to the medical-led outpatient service model. 4
Objectives To determine whether steroids are effective in treating adults with acute vestibular neuritis. Data Sources PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science, CAB Abstract, ICTRP, LILACS, PEDRO, ClinicalTrials.Gov, Google Scholar, NARIC, and OT Seeker. Review Methods A systematic review was undertaken for articles reporting subjective and/or objective outcomes of corticosteroids in adults with acute vestibular neuritis between December 2010 and October 2019. Reports of patient recovery from clinical vestibular outcomes at various time points and adverse effects from corticosteroids were of interest. Statistical analysis included qualitative and quantitative assessments. A limited meta-analysis of the data was performed through a random effects model. Results Eight studies met the criteria, and 6 were included in the meta-analysis. No significant differences between the groups (corticosteroid vs placebo, corticosteroid vs vestibular exercise, or corticosteroid vs combination of vestibular exercise and corticosteroid) were reported in the proportion of patients with complete recovery at 1, 6, and 12 months. The corticosteroid group had significantly better caloric recover at 1 month (95% CI, –16.33 to –0.32); however, there was no significant difference to the overall effect between the groups across 12 months. Subjective recovery did not differ between the groups. Five of the 8 studies reported on adverse effects from corticosteroids. Conclusion There is insufficient evidence to support the use of corticosteroids in managing acute vestibular neuritis in adults. At present, corticosteroids appear to have short-term benefits in canal paresis but no long-term benefits in canal paresis and symptomatic recovery. Future studies should consider including a wider variety of clinical vestibular tests and frequent acute follow-ups to monitor the effects of corticosteroids.
The Vestibular Rehabilitation Benefit Questionnaire, a relatively new tool, scored an "excellent" rating on three COSMIN criteria, and may be the best measure to address treatment outcomes. Questions on respective tools ranged from nine to 36, and no questionnaire was validated in the emergency department. Due to the number of questions and lack of validity, none of the questionnaires was deemed appropriate as a screening tool for dizziness/vertigo in the emergency department. Laryngoscope, 128:971-981, 2018.
AS patients treated with etanercept demonstrated superior improvement in nocturnal back pain and fatigue versus sulfasalazine or placebo. Decrease in nocturnal back pain can improve fatigue. Assessing treatment response using CRP levels alone may be misleading without also examining patient-reported outcomes such as back pain and fatigue.
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