Over the past few decades, complementary and alternative treatments have become increasingly popular worldwide. The purported therapeutic characteristics of natural products have come under increased scrutiny both in vitro and in vivo as part of efforts to legitimize their usage. One such product is tea tree oil (TTO), a volatile essential oil primarily obtained from the native Australian plant, Melaleuca alternifolia, which has diverse traditional and industrial applications such as topical preparations for the treatment of skin infections. Its anti-inflammatory-linked immunomodulatory actions have also been reported. This systematic review focuses on the anti-inflammatory effects of TTO and its main components that have shown strong immunomodulatory potential. An extensive literature search was performed electronically for data curation on worldwide accepted scientific databases, such as Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and esteemed publishers such as Elsevier, Springer, Frontiers, and Taylor & Francis. Considering that the majority of pharmacological studies were conducted on crude oils only, the extracted data were critically analyzed to gain further insight into the prospects of TTO being used as a neuroprotective agent by drug formulation or dietary supplement. In addition, the active constituents contributing to the activity of TTO have not been well justified, and the core mechanisms need to be unveiled especially for anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects leading to neuroprotection. Therefore, this review attempts to correlate the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity of TTO with its neuroprotective mechanisms.
Tea Tree Oil/therapeutic use* ; Melaleuca ; Neuroprotection ; Drug Repositioning ; Neuroinflammatory Diseases ; Australia ; Oils, Volatile ; Anti-Inflammatory Agents/pharmacology*

PURPOSE: Trauma centres have been proven to provide better outcomes in developed countries for overall trauma, but there is limited literature on the systematic factors that describe any discrepancies in outcomes for trauma laparotomies in these centres. This study was conducted to examine and interrogate the effect of systematic factors on patients undergoing a trauma laparotomy in a developed country, intending to identify potential discrepancies in the outcome. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of all laparotomies performed for trauma at a level 1 trauma centre in New Zealand. All adult patients who had undergone an index laparotomy for trauma between February 2012 and November 2020 were identified and laparotomies for both blunt and penetrating trauma were included. Repeat laparotomies and trauma laparotomies in children were excluded. The primary clinical outcomes reviewed included morbidity, length of hospital stay, and mortality. All statistical analysis was performed using R v.4.0.3. RESULTS: During the 9-year study period, 204 trauma laparotomies were performed at Waikato hospital. The majority (83.3%) were performed during office hours (170/204), and the remaining 16.7% were performed after hours (34/204). And 61.3% were performed on a weekday (125/204), whilst 38.7% were performed on the weekend/public holiday (79/204). Most of the parameters in office hours and after hours groups had no statistically significant difference, except lactate (p = 0.026). Most of the variables in weekday and weekend groups had no statistically significant difference, except pH, lactate, length of stay, and gastrointestinal complications (p = 0.012, p < 0.001, p = 0.003, p = 0.020, respectively). CONCLUSION The current trauma system at Waikato hospital is capable of delivering care for trauma laparotomy patients with the same outcome regardless of working hours or after hours, weekday or weekend. This confirms the importance of a robust trauma system capable of responding to the sudden demands placed on it.
Adult ; Child ; Humans ; Laparotomy ; Trauma Centers ; Retrospective Studies ; New Zealand/epidemiology* ; Lactic Acid ; Abdominal Injuries/surgery*

Objective To systematically analyze the current status of outcomes reporting in clinical trials on treating stasis acute mastitis with Traditional Chinese Medicine breast massage.Methods We searched CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane library, JBI, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Clinical Trials Registry Platform portal, Clinical Trials Registry, Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, Center Watch Registry from inception to May 15, 2022 to find randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, case series and cohort studies which reported the outcomes of stasis acute mastitis managed with Traditional Chinese Medicine breast massage, with search terms of mastitis, acute mastitis, lactation mastitis, puerperal mastitis, breast problem, breast engorgement, milk stasis, blocked ducked, breast pain, breast massage, and acupoint massage. Outcomes and the measurement schemes (measurement methods, timing of assessing outcome, frequency of assessing outcome, measurers) were extracted from the included studies. We used the Management of Otitis Media with Effusion in Children with Cleft Palate (MOMENT) to assess the quality of each study, then categorized outcomes derived from the included studies into different domains according to the Outcome Measures in Rheumatology Arthritis Clinic Trials (OMERACT) Filter 2.1 framework.Results We identified 85 clinical trials, in which 54 different outcomes were reported. A total of 81.2% (69/85) of studies were assessed as medium quality with a mean score of 2.6, and 18.8% (16/85) as low quality with a mean score of 0.9. These outcomes were organized in three core areas. Lump size (89.4%, 76/85) was the most frequently reported outcome, followed by breast pain (69.4%, 59/85) and milk excretion (68.2%, 58/85). Five methods were used to assess lump size and four methods to assess breast pain.Conclusions The outcomes reported in clinical trials regarding stasis acute mastitis treated by Traditional Chinese Medicine breast massage are heterogeneous. Developing a core outcome set to achieve consistent standards for reporting outcomes and modalities for validation of the outcomes is clearly warranted.
Child ; Female ; Humans ; Australia ; Massage ; Mastitis/therapy* ; Mastodynia ; Medicine, Chinese Traditional

OBJECTIVE: To retrieve the evidence for threshold setting of multi-parameter electrocardiograph (ECG) monitors in intensive care unit (ICU), and summarize the best evidence. METHODS: After literature retrieval, clinical guidelines, expert consensus, evidence summary and systematic review that met the requirements were screened. Guidelines were evaluated by the appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation II (AGREE II), expert consensus and systematic review were evaluated by the Australian JBI evidence-based health care center authenticity evaluation tool, and evidence summary was evaluated by the CASE checklist. High-quality literature was selected to extract evidence related to the use and setup of multi-parameter ECG monitors in the ICU. RESULTS: A total of 19 literatures were included, including 7 guidelines, 2 expert consensus, 8 systematic reviews, 1 evidence summary, and 1 national industry standard. After evidence extraction, translation, proofreading and summary, a total of 32 pieces of evidence were integrated. The included evidence involved the environmental preparation for the application of the ECG monitor, the electrical requirements of the ECG monitor, ECG monitor use process, ECG monitor alarm setting principles, ECG monitor alarm heart rate or heart rhythm monitoring setting, ECG monitor alarm blood pressure monitoring setting, ECG monitor alarm respiratory and blood oxygen saturation threshold setting, alarm delay warning time setting, adjusting alarm setting method, evaluating alarm setting time, improving the comfort of monitoring patients, reducing nuisance alarm report the occurrence, alarm priority processing, alarm intelligent processing and so on. CONCLUSIONS This summary of evidence involves many aspects of the setting and application of ECG monitor. According to the latest guidelines and expert consensus, it is updated and revised to guide healthcare workers to monitor patients more scientifically and safely, and aims to ensure patient safety.
Humans ; Clinical Alarms ; Australia ; Intensive Care Units ; Arrhythmias, Cardiac ; Electrocardiography ; Monitoring, Physiologic

BACKGROUND: Beginning with the concepts of stress developed by Selye, an approach to stress and pain management, known as neuro-emotional technique (NET), has been developed. It is a treatment approach based on the principle that the stressor effects of dormant and/or current unresolved issues or trauma are what determine one's bodily responses. These responses are relatively personalized to the conditioned, experiential and emotional reality of the individual. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of NET on patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) over time. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, AND INTERVENTIONS: In a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study conducted in a single clinic, NET or control treatments were given twice weekly for 4 weeks in a population of 112 patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Outcome measures, including Oswestry Disability Index, Quadruple Visual Analogue Scale, the psychoneuroimmunology markers of blood serum levels of C-reactive protein, tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-6, and IL-10, and 10 dimensions of the Short Form Health Survey scale, were assessed at baseline and at 1, 3 and 6 months following the intervention period. RESULTS: Compared to placebo, NET produced clinical and statistical significance (P < 0.001) via declines of virtually all physiological, pain and disability markers, accompanied by gains in quality-of-life indicators at 0 (baseline), 1, 3 and 6 months. Reductions of the percentages of patients whose 5 biomarkers lay outside the normative range were achieved at 1, 3 and 6 months by NET but not control interventions. CONCLUSION: A randomized, controlled trial of CLBP patients indicated that 8 NET interventions, compared to placebo, produced clinically and statistically significant reductions in pain, disability and inflammatory biomarkers, and improvements in quality-of-life measures. TRIAL REGISTRATION The trial was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (No. ACTRN12608000002381).
Australia ; Chronic Pain/therapy* ; Double-Blind Method ; Humans ; Low Back Pain/therapy* ; Pain Measurement ; Treatment Outcome

Objective: To systematically evaluate and integrate the real experience of burn patients during rehabilitation, and to provide theoretical guidance for the continual nursing care for burn patients. Methods: The systematic evaluation method was adopted. Databases including the China National Knowledge Internet, Wanfang Database, China Biology Medicine disc were retrieved with the search terms in Chinese version of "/, //, ////", and PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library were retrieved with the search terms of "burn/burns, rehabilitation/recovery/survivor/survive, experience/views/perceptions/, qualitative/phenomenon/interview/grounded theory". The qualitative studies on the real experience of burn patients during rehabilitation published from the establishment of each database to June 2020 were searched. The quality of the included studies was evaluated according to the quality evaluation criteria for qualitative research of the Joanna Briggs Institute Evidence-Based Health Care Center. The research country, research method, research object, research content, and main research result were summarized, and meta-synthesis of the research results was conducted with the aggregative integration method. Results: A total of 12 studies were included, and the quality of all the studies was grade B. The studies were conducted in 8 countries including Australia, Canada, Norway, etc., the research method mainly was phenomenological research method, and all the studies were focused on adult burn patients. A total of 46 specific themes were extracted with totally 10 new categories formed after summarization, and 3 integrated results were obtained as follows: burn patients suffered from both physical and psychological burdens, and their normal life was broken; burn patients gained post-traumatic growth and could actively adjust to cope with life difficulties; burn patients had multiple needs. Conclusions: Burn patients experience both physical and psychological pains during rehabilitation, so they long for multiple support from family and society. Medical staff, social groups, and family members should pay attention to the psychological experience and needs of burn patients with different characteristics during rehabilitation, and build a multi-directional social support system to help patients return to the society and rebuild their lives.
Adaptation, Psychological ; Adult ; Australia ; Burns ; China ; Humans ; Qualitative Research

Currently, as the key raw material of artificial biological heart valve, bovine pericardium is mainly depend on import and has become a "bottleneck" challenge, greatly limiting the development of domestic biological heart valve. Therefore, the localization of bovine pericardium is extremely urgent. In this study, the pericardium of Sichuan yak was compared with that of Australian cattle in terms of fundamental properties and anti-calcification performance. The results demonstrated that the appearance and thickness of yak pericardium were more advantageous than the Australian one. Sichuan yak pericardium and Australian cattle pericardium had comparable performance in shrinkage temperature, mechanical test and anti-calcification test. This study preliminarily verifies the feasibility of substitution of Australian cattle pericardium by Sichuan yak pericardium and promotes the progression of bovine pericardium localization with data support.
Animals ; Australia ; Bioprosthesis ; Cattle ; Heart Valve Prosthesis ; Pericardium

OBJECTIVE: To explore the difference in rates and reasons for disclosure of either conventional or complementary medicine (CM) to healthcare practitioners between people living with sleep disorders (SDs) and those without SDs. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey (N = 2019 adults) that measured sociodemographic characteristics, health status, health service utilisation, health literacy and health communication (medicine disclosure) of a representative sample of Australians was conducted. Data from participants reporting an SD (n = 265) were compared to those not reporting an SD to assess measures of health communication and disclosure about medicine use. RESULTS: Overall, rates of medicine disclosure to both conventional and CM practitioners were high, in respondents with (70%) and without an SD (57%). Those reporting an SD had higher expectations of their conventional health practitioner's knowledge of CM, associated clinical decision-making skills, and approval of CM use, and held a higher degree of concern about drug interactions (P < 0.05). The main reasons cited for disclosing CM use to conventional health practitioners and conventional medicine use to CM practitioners were "I want them to fully understand my health status" and "I was concerned about drug interactions with the CMs used." CONCLUSION The high rate of medicine use disclosure by people with SDs is driven by an intention to inform their healthcare practitioner about their health status and concerns about potential medicine interactions. Therefore, research about the expectations that people with an SD have of their conventional healthcare practitioners' knowledge of CM and CM-drug interactions requires further examination. Likewise, further examination of CM practitioner's conventional medicine knowledge is encouraged.
Adult ; Australia ; Complementary Therapies ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Disclosure ; Humans ; Sleep Wake Disorders/therapy*

Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Education ; Humans ; International Cooperation ; Oceania ; Seoul

Asia ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Cooperative Behavior ; Early Detection of Cancer ; Humans ; International Cooperation ; Japan ; Korea ; Liver ; Lung Neoplasms ; Mass Screening ; Oceania ; Taiwan ; Thailand ; Thyroid Neoplasms