Introduction: Dengue haemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome are major causes of hospital admission and mortality in children. Up to 5% of people with dengue haemorrhagic fever die of the infection, depending on availability of appropriate supportive care.
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 June 2008 (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 13 systematic reviews or RCTs 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 carbazochrome sodium sulfonate, corticosteroids, or intravenous immunoglobulin to standard intravenous fluids; adding recombinant-activated factor VII to blood component transfusion; colloids; crystalloids; and intravenous fluids.