TY - JOUR T1 - Authors’ response JF - Gut JO - Gut SP - 735 LP - 735 VL - 58 IS - 5 AU - M A Silva AU - B Hegab AU - C Hyde AU - B Guo AU - J A C Buckels AU - D F Mirza Y1 - 2009/05/01 UR - http://gut.bmj.com/content/58/5/735.abstract N2 - We thank Germani et al for their comments in response to our paper. In the absence of randomised controlled studies, we based our review on the guidelines set out by the Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (MOOSE) group, as a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.1 On the basis of these guidelines using robust search strategies, only eight studies fulfilled inclusion … ER -