Preoperative radiotherapy and curative surgery for the management of localised rectal carcinoma.

Background: This is an update of the original review published in 2007.Carcinoma of the rectum is a common malignancy, especially in high income countries. Local recurrence may occur after surgery alone.

Ultrasonography for endoleak detection after endoluminal abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

Background: People with abdominal aortic aneurysm who receive endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) need lifetime surveillance to detect potential endoleaks. Endoleak is defined as persistent blood flow within the aneurysm sac following EVAR. Computed tomography (CT) angiography is considered the reference standard for endoleak surveillance.

A systematic review found that deviations from intention-to-treat are common in randomized trials and systematic reviews.

Objectives: To describe the characteristics, and estimate the incidence, of trials included in systematic reviews deviating from the intention-to-treat (ITT) principle.

Study Design And Setting: A 5% random sample of reviews were selected (Medline 2006-2010). Trials from reviews were classified based on the ITT: (1) ITT trials (trials reporting standard ITT analyses); (2) modified ITT (mITT) trials (modified ITT; trials deviating from standard ITT); or (3) no ITT trials.

Deviation from intention to treat analysis in randomised trials and treatment effect estimates: meta-epidemiological study.

Objective: To examine whether deviation from the standard intention to treat analysis has an influence on treatment effect estimates of randomised trials.

Design: Meta-epidemiological study.

Data Sources: Medline, via PubMed, searched between 2006 and 2010; 43 systematic reviews of interventions and 310 randomised trials were included.