A decrease in ARDS mortality was only seen in observational studies from 1984 to 1993. Mortality did not decrease between 1994 (when a consensus definition was published) and 2006, and is lower in RCTs than observational studies.

There has been an increase in the incidence of acute pancreatitis reported worldwide. Despite improvements in access to care, imaging and interventional techniques, acute pancreatitis continues to be associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite the availability of clinical practice guidelines for the management of acute pancreatitis, recent studies auditing the clinical management of the condition have shown important areas of noncompliance with evidence-based recommendations. This underscores the importance of creating understandable and implementable recommendations for the diagnosis and management of acute pancreatitis. The purpose of the present guideline is to provide evidence-based recommendations for the management of both mild and severe acute pancreatitis as well as the management of complications of acute pancreatitis and of gall stone-induced pancreatitis.Une hausse de l'incidence de pancréatite aiguë a été constatée à l'échelle mondiale. Malgré l'amélioration de l'accès aux soins et aux techniques d'imagerie et d'intervention, la pancréatite aiguë est toujours associée à une morbidité et une mortalité importantes. Bien qu'il existe des guides de pratique clinique pour la prise en charge de la pancréatite aiguë, des études récentes sur la vérification de la prise en charge clinique de cette affection révèlent des lacunes importantes dans la conformité aux recommandations fondées sur des données probantes. Ces résultats mettent en relief l'importance de formuler des recommandations compréhensibles et applicables pour le diagnostic et la prise en charge de la pancréatite aiguë. La présente ligne directrice vise à fournir des recommandations fondées sur des données probantes pour la prise en charge de la pancréatite aiguë, qu'elle soit bénigne ou grave, ainsi que de ses complications et de celles de la pancréatite causée par un calcul biliaire.A cute pancreatitis can range from a mild, self-limiting disease that requires no more than supportive measures to severe disease with lifethreatening complications. The most common causes of acute pan creatitis are gallstones and binge alcohol consumption.1 There has been an increase in the incidence of acute pancreatitis reported worldwide. Despite improvements in access to care, imaging and interventional techniques, acute pancreatitis continues to be associated with significant morbidity and mortality.A systematic review of clinical practice guidelines for the management of acute pancreatitis revealed 14 guidelines published between 2004 and 2008 alone.2 Although these guidelines have significant overlap in their recommendations for diagnosing and managing acute pancreatitis, there is disagreement in some aspects of both the timing and types of interventions that should be used for both mild and severe acute pancreatitis. The availability of new imaging modalities and noninvasive therapies has also changed clinical practice. Finally, despite the availability of guidelines, recent studies auditing clinical management of acute pancreatitis have sh...

Prone ventilation reduces mortality in patients with severe hypoxemia. Given associated risks, this approach should not be routine in all patients with AHRF, but may be considered for severely hypoxemic patients.

BackgroundMeta-analysis handles randomized trials with no outcome events in both treatment and control arms inconsistently, including them when risk difference (RD) is the effect measure but excluding them when relative risk (RR) or odds ratio (OR) are used. This study examined the influence of such trials on pooled treatment effects.MethodsAnalysis with and without zero total event trials of three illustrative published meta-analyses with a range of proportions of zero total event trials, treatment effects, and heterogeneity using inverse variance weighting and random effects that incorporates between-study heterogeneity.ResultsIncluding zero total event trials in meta-analyses moves the pooled estimate of treatment effect closer to nil, decreases its confidence interval and decreases between-study heterogeneity. For RR and OR, inclusion of such trials causes small changes, even when they comprise the large majority of included trials. For RD, the changes are more substantial, and in extreme cases can eliminate a statistically significant effect estimate.ConclusionTo include all relevant data regardless of effect measure chosen, reviewers should also include zero total event trials when calculating pooled estimates using OR and RR.