Rituximab: a review of its use in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
In phase III trials in patients with indolent or aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, intravenous rituximab in combination with chemotherapy was more effective as first- or second-line therapy than chemotherapy alone in providing tumour remission and patient survival. Expand Tramadol: a review of its use in perioperative pain.
The efficacy of tramadol for the management of moderate to severe postoperative pain has been demonstrated in both inpatients and day surgery patients and, unlike other opioids, tramdol has no clinically relevant effects on respiratory or cardiovascular parameters. Expand Sumatriptan. An updated review of its use in migraine.
Results of comparative trials showed that subcutaneous sumatriptan 6 mg was significantly more effective than either patients' usual antimigraine treatments or intranasal dihydroergotamine mesylate 1 mg in relieving migraine headache. Expand Propofol: a review of its use in intensive care sedation of adults.
Emergence from sedation is more rapid with propofol than with midazolam, even after long-term administration, which enables better control of the depth of sedation in response to titration and more predictable recovery times. Expand Cyclosporin: an updated review of the pharmacokinetic properties, clinical efficacy and tolerability of a microemulsion-based formulation (neoral)1 in organ transplantation.
The introduction of cyclosporin microemulsion has consolidated the place of the drug as a mainstay of therapy in all types of solid organ transplantation and savings in direct healthcare costs in kidney or liver transplantation are shown, although studies incorporating indirect costs or expressing costs in terms of therapeutic outcomes are currently unavailable. Expand Linezolid: a review of its use in the management of serious gram-positive infections.
Linezolid has good activity against gram-positive bacteria, particularly multidrug resistant strains of S. aureus and enterococci, and is poised to play an important role in the management of serious gram- positive infections. Expand Aripiprazole: a review of its use in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
Evidence suggests that its efficacy in the treatment of the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia and its lower propensity for extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS) may be attributable to aripiprazole's partial agonist activity at dopamine D2 receptors. Expand Lamotrigine: a review of its use in bipolar disorder.
Lamotrigine has been shown to be an effective maintenance therapy for patients with bipolar I disorder, significantly delaying time to intervention for any mood episode and showed limited efficacy in delaying timeto intervention for a manic/hypomanic episode, compared with placebo. Expand Trastuzumab: a review of its use in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer overexpressing HER2.
Intravenous trastuzumab is effective as a single-agent, and in combination with chemotherapy it significantly improves the median time to disease progression and survival time in patients with metastatic breast cancer overexpressing the HER2 receptor compared with chemotherapy alone. Expand Amisulpride: a review of its use in the management of schizophrenia.
Its effective alleviation of negative and affective symptoms, its lower association with extrapyramidal symptoms and loss of cognitive function than conventional antipsychotics and its long-term efficacy justifies consideration of the use of higher dosages of amisulpride in this group of patients. Expand