Contributing to the growth of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM): call for a Cochrane Field in PRM

The European Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ESPRM), together with the European Journal of PRM and the PRM Section and Board of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS), started an action to establish a relationship with Cochrane (formerly the Cochrane Collaboration). Cochrane is a global, independent network of researchers, professionals, patients, carers and people interested in health, with contributors from more than 130 countries. Its aim is to produce credible, accessible health information that is free from any conflicts of interest. Cochrane produces the Cochrane Library, an evidence-based resource that includes today more than 6300 Cochrane systematic reviews. Cochrane is made up of many different review groups and other entities (such as Centres and Branches), distributed around the world, that are mainly focused on specific healthcare problems (diseases, or organs). Inside Cochrane also Fields have been created, that focus on a dimension of health care other than a specific healthcare problem. A Cochrane Field represents a bridge between Cochrane and the stakeholders of the related healthcare area. The medical specialty of PRM is covering a broad medical domain: it deals with function, activities and participation in a large number of health conditions, mostly but not exclusively musculoskeletal, neurological and cardiorespiratory. Consequently, the currently more than 200 existing Cochrane Reviews are scattered among different groups. A PRM Field could greatly serve to the need of the specialty, spreading the actual Cochrane knowledge, focusing needs today not covered by Cochrane Reviews, facing the intrinsic methodological problems of the specialty. This paper introduces a call for the development of a PRM Cochrane Field, briefly reviewing what Cochrane is and how it is organized, defining the value and identifying a pathway toward the development of a PRM Cochrane Field, and finally shortly reviewing the Cochrane reviews of PRM interest.

Current research funding methods dumb down health care and rehabilitation for disabled people and aging population: a call for a change

Health care systems in Western societies are faced with two major challenges: aging populations and the growing burden of chronic conditions. This translates into more persons with disabilities and the need for more Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (PRM) services. We raise the point of how these emerging needs are faced by the actual research funding. We briefly present the results of an analysis we made about research funding by the Italian National Health Service as an interesting case study, since it relates to Italy (the financer) and the United States, where National Institutes of Health (NIH) reviewers were identified according to their classification of research topics. The topics of potentially greatest interest for aging Western societies, like chronicity, disability and rehabilitation, were among those least often funded and considered in the traditional method of financing research projects. These results could be based on those PRM peculiarities that make the specialty different from all other classical biomedical specialties, namely the bio-psycho-social approach and its specific research methodologies. Moreover, PRM researchers are spread among the different topics as usually classified, and it is probable that PRM projects are judged by non-PRM reviewers. There are at least two possible ways in which research can be better placed to meet the emerging needs of Western societies (chronicity, disability and consequently also rehabilitation). One is to create specific keywords on these topics so as to improve the match between researchers and reviewers; the second is to allocate specific funds to research in these areas. In fact, the not coherence between emerging needs and research priorities have already been periodically addressed in the past with specific "political" and/or "social" initiatives, when researchers were forced to respond to new emergencies: some historical examples include cancer or HIV and viral diseases or the recent Ebola outbreak.

The use of desmopressin in the management of nocturnal enuresis in patients with spinal cord injury

AIM

The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of desmopressin acetate (DDAVP) in the management of nocturnal enuresis in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI), as well as arginine vasopressin (AVP) daily production, urine output, urine osmolarity and clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) before and after the use of desmopressin.

METHODS

We studied 11 patients with SCI (7 men 4 women). All patients attended a rehabilitation program and used a wheelchair for locomotion. To improve bladder function and achieve socially acceptable continence all patients were placed on a regimen of anticholinergic drugs (oxybutynin 5 mg, 1x3 daily), evening antibiotic prophylaxis and CIC. The subjects were also on night CIC in order to avoid nocturnal incontinence. DDAVP was given intranasally (20 mg before bedtime) in association with other standard therapy. Urine samples were collected under sterile conditions from all patients at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Urine volume was measured and the amount of urine per hour was calculated. Blood samples were also taken to measure serum AVP, urea, creatinine and serum electrolyte.

RESULTS

Our data suggest that nocturnal polyuria in SCI patients occurs due to a lack of diurnal variation of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) secretion. The use of desmopressin produced a statistically significant increase in urine production rate during the day (56.2 vs 81.2 mL/h, P<0.001) and a decrease in nocturnal urine production (59.2 vs 27.7 mL/h, P<0.001). Desmopressin treatment reflects also on urine osmolarity, which did not change during the day (496 vs 489 mOsm/mL, P>0.5) but showed a significant increase during the night (385 vs 862 mOsm/mL, P<0.001). There was a significant decrease in night CIC. No serious adverse effects were observed.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that desmopressin administration is an beneficial treating option for patients with SCI when fluid restriction and other preventive measures are not able to control abnormal nocturnal polyuria.