Dengue haemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome in children.

INTRODUCTION

Dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome are major causes of hospital admission and mortality in children.

METHODS AND OUTCOMES

We conducted a systematic review and aimed to answer the following clinical question: What are the effects of supportive treatments for dengue haemorrhagic fever or dengue shock syndrome in children? We searched: Medline, Embase, The Cochrane Library, and other important databases up to March 2014 (Clinical Evidence reviews are updated periodically, please check our website for the most up-to-date version of this review). We included harms alerts from relevant organisations such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

RESULTS

We found nine studies that met our inclusion criteria. We performed a GRADE evaluation of the quality of evidence for interventions.

CONCLUSIONS

In this systematic review we present information relating to the effectiveness and safety of the following interventions: adding blood component transfusion to standard intravenous fluids; adding corticosteroids or intravenous immunoglobulin to standard intravenous fluids; and crystalloids versus colloids.