Report by: Helene Svinos, Medical Student

Search checked by: Anna O’Malley, Medical Student

Institution: University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether tocolytic therapy improves outcome in pregnant trauma patients. Four papers presented evidence addressing the clinical question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are shown in table 1. The clinical bottom line is that there is insufficient evidence to support the early use of tocolytics in pregnant trauma patients.

Three-part question

In a [pregnant trauma patient] does [tocolytic therapy] improve [outcome for mother and foetus]? …