(i) What is a prospective study? What are its advantages?

(ii) What is a randomized study? What are its advantages?

(iii) What is a double-blind study? Are there advantages vs. other approaches?

Infectious Disease

Aminoglycosides are powerful broad-spectrum antibiotics used for gram-negative infections often in seriously ill patients. For example, the drugs are often prescribed for drug-resistant tuberculosis as recommended by the World Health Organization. However, these drugs have serious side effects, including irreversible hearing loss referred to as ototoxicity. The most commonly prescribed aminoglycoside is gentamicin.

A clinical trial was set up in China to assess whether the addition of aspirin to a standard regimen of gentamicin would have an effect on the incidence of ototoxicity [28]. There were 195 patients enrolled in a prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial. Of these, 106 patients were randomized to a twice daily regimen of 80−160 mg of gentamicin plus placebo and 89 patients were randomized to receive the same regimen of gentamicin + 3 g of aspirin (ASA) daily.