Meta-analysis in Neonatal Perinatal Medicine

Abstract

Systematic overviews provide a comprehensive and thorough review of the available data from clinical trials. When these reviews include meta-analyses, clinicians can synthesize the results of related studies and gain greater precision in their estimates of the effects of therapy. Even when inconclusive, meta-analyses allow for the exploration of differences between studies and may point toward promising areas of future research (or steer clinicians away from further nonproductive areas). In the field of neonatal-perinatal medicine, systematic overviews have provided the basis of several major changes in guidelines with measurable impact on neonatal outcome.