[BB]

Just noticed this, which might be useful for some folk on here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11598090

[robertostallioni]

There's nothing in there at all about growing your own pair of tits. 

I think Brolly had the jab(s) last year, maybe he would share his first hand opinion....

[GCW]

Without seeing the full article, I can't fully comment other than their exclusion of 2000 trials and the low patient numbers.
I won't change my practice yet, and I certainly use physio before injection a lot of the time anyway.

[slackline]

3783 trials will have been excluded because they either...

a) Didn't have the same outcome as chosen for the meta-analysis, in this case "one or more peritendinous injections with placebo or non-surgical interventions for tendinopathy, scoring more than 50% on the modified physiotherapy evidence database scale" (you can't compare apples and pears).

b) Poor study design (e.g. not randomising to treatment which they state is a pre-requisite for inclusion).

Its very common for a high number of studies to be identified, but only a small number to meet the criteria for inclusion in meta-analysis.  Check the Cochrane Reviews for further examples.


Worth bearing in mind...

Lies, Damn Lies and Medical Science

Based on the original article in PLoS Medicine (Open Access journal).

[GCW]

Yes, like I said I haven't seen the full article so I can't critique it any.  I'm interested in the "scoring more than 50% on the modified physiotherapy evidence database scale" part, which will be the main exclusion criterion. 

But bearing in mind low patient numbers and the assessment of numerous sites of injection, they sound like they are comparing apples and pears to a degree.