With the exception of one RCT,[38] all patients in the included trials received
co-intervention including calcium,[4],[29],[31],[32],[33],[36],[37],[39],[41] Vitamin D analogs,[24] or both.
But in order to soundly assess these poorly controlled observations, stratification of treatment allocation of pharmacotherapy should be considered in future trials, according to the presence of concomitant enteral nutrition, to better understand the clinical implications of this
co-intervention, or head-to-head randomisation should compare enteral nutrition alone to acid suppressive pharmacoprophylaxis.
These estimates were unchanged after imputing missing data, and estimates of effect in trials with higher loss to follow-up or a possibility of
co-intervention compared with those with lower loss to follow-up and no
co-intervention did not differ significantly (p=0.21).
There was no known
co-intervention, and the time-period of 2 weeks between the assessments was too short for the acquisition of further experience to explain the improvement.
That factorial trial demonstrated improvement in quadriceps muscle cross-sectional area in response to exercise training--an effect that was still evident even when the anabolic steroid nandrolone decanoate was used as a
co-intervention. Unfortunately, an improvement in lean body mass was not identified, since this correlates with long-term survival in haemodialysis patients (Desmeules 2004).
Did the control group receive a
co-intervention? What were
method described and appropriate Contamination/ No mention of ways to control score 0;
co-intervention (/4) for contamination or
co-intervention some patients received some score 2; sort of contamination or
co-intervention assumed that no contamination or
co-intervention took place due to immediate follow-up score 3; contamination and score 4.
One study was not included because it used contact lenses as a
co-intervention.
This study involved very few subjects (n = 17), no significant follow-up period, provided no information with respect to contamination or
co-intervention and provided minimal information on blinding strategies.
Due to the lack of long-term follow-up care and the use of a single treatment intervention, contamination and
co-intervention grading had to be assumed in 4 of the 8 studies which may have further influenced the overall quality of these studies.
The tapering protocol in our study and the inclusion of behavioral health
co-interventions are also recommended by the 2016 guidelines published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Due to the inability to blind the intervention, the frequency of the following
co-interventions that were part of basic nursing care, which could be modified by the group knowledge and at the same time could affect the expected results, were quantified: changes of position, bath in bed, fixation of the ETT and sedation.