Towards evidence-based emergency medicine: best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. BET 1: Is heat application as good as pain killers in dysmenorrhoea?

A short cut review was carried out to establish whether heat application was a comparable alternative to traditional painkillers in women with dysmenorrheal pain. Two randomized trials were directly relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. The clinical bottom line was that heat application was an alternative to NSAIDs.