Table 3.
Single corticosteroid versus placebo injection | Repeated corticosteroid versus placebo injections | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Time | Number of studies | Hedges’s g (CI) | p Value | NNT | Between treatment comparison | Number of studies | Hedges’s g (CI) | p Value | NNT (CI) |
Less than 4 weeks | 6 | 0.44 (0.15−0.73) | 0.018 | NA | p = 0.992 | 3 | 0.44 (0.23−0.60) | < 0.001 | NA |
4 to less than 8 weeks | 8 | 0.51 (0.20−0.83) | 0.001 | 5 (3.1−13.1) | p = 0.918 | 4 | 0.54 (0.12−0.96) | 0.011 | 4.7 (2.7 −22) |
8–12 weeks. | 6 | 0.28 (−0.12 to 0.68) | 0.170 | NA | p = 0.683 | 3 | 0.14 (−0.40 to 0.69) | 0.625 | NA |
NNT = number needed to treat; NA = not applicable owing to either minimal control group event rate (less than 0.1%) or nonsignificant results.