Is there a role for digitalis in chronic heart failure? - First update.

This Living FRISBEE (Living FRIendly Summary of the Body of Evidence using Epistemonikos) is an update of the summary published in April 2015, based on a new systematic review published in May 2015. The main clinical guidelines recommend the use of digitalis for chronic heart failure when moderate to severe symptoms persist after standard therapy, even though there is controversy about its efficacy and security. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified four systematic reviews including 13 randomized trials. We combined the evidence using meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table following the GRADE approach. We concluded the use of digitalis for chronic heart failure probably leads to little or no decrease in mortality, but they might reduce hospitalizations and clinical deterioration. However, the certainty of the evidence is low.