title: Fasting for haemostasis in children with gastrointestinal bleeding.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gastrointestinal bleeding refers to loss of blood from any site of the digestive tract. In paediatric clinical practice, it is usually a complaint of children attending the emergency department as a symptom of diseases such as ulcers, gastric or oesophageal varices, gastritis, Mallory-Weiss tears, anorectal fissures, allergic colitis, infectious colitis, intussusception, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, and Meckel's diverticulum; it also occurs with high incidence in critically ill children hospitalised in intensive care units and is caused by stress-induced gastropathy. No matter what the cause of gastrointestinal bleeding, fasting is believed to be necessary due to the fear that eating may affect haemostasis or aggravate bleeding.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the effects and safety of fasting for haemostasis in gastrointestinal bleeding in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched EBM Reviews - the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (May 2016), Ovid MEDLINE(R) (1946 to 3 May 2016), EMBASE (1980 to 2016 Week 18), Chinese Biomedical Database (CBM) (1978 to 3 May 2016), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) (1979 to 3 May 2016), VIP Database (1989 to 4 May 2016) and Wanfang Data (1990 to 4 May 2016). We used no restrictions on language or study setting and limited searches in CNKI and Wanfang Data to the medical field.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) or quasi-RCTs in children with gastrointestinal bleeding that compared fasting with feeding.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two review authors independently screened the literature search results, and there were no disagreements.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified no RCTs or quasi-RCTs that compared the effects and safety of fasting with feeding for haemostasis in children with gastrointestinal bleeding. No study fulfilled the criteria for considering studies for our review.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is currently no information available from RCTs or quasi-RCTs to support or refute the use of fasting for haemostasis in children with gastrointestinal bleeding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, West China Second University Hospital, West China Women's and Children's Hospital, No. 17 Section Three, Ren Min Nan Lu Avenue, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, 610041.
authors.forename: Shuang-Hong
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Guan J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Chaomin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wan
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005215:Fasting; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006487:Hemostasis; D006801:Humans