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Evidence summaries

Interventions for Preventing Mastitis after Childbirth

Acupoint massage or probiotics may possibly prevent mastitis after childbirth compared with usual care or placebo. Level of evidence: "D"

Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study limitations (selective outcome reporting) and by imprecise results (few patients and outcome events, wide confidence intervals).

Summary

A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included 10 studies with a total of 3034 subjects. Probiotics reduced the risk of mastitis more than placebo (RR 0.51, 95% CI 0.35 to 0.75; 2 trials, n=399; low-certainty evidence), and so did acupoint massage compared to routine care (RR 0.38, 95% CI 0.19 to 0.78;1 trial; 400 women; low-certainty evidence). There were no significant differences in the incidence of mastitis between use of antibiotics and no antibiotics (RR 0.37, 95% CI 0.10 to 1.34; 3 trials, n=429).

Clinical comments

Note

Date of latest search: 2020-10-06

    References

    • Crepinsek MA, Taylor EA, Michener K et al. Interventions for preventing mastitis after childbirth. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2020;(9):CD007239. [PubMed]

Primary/Secondary Keywords