Cochrane Library Podcasts

Acute bronchitis is one of the commonest respiratory tract infections seen by general or family practitioners, with several reviews now available in the Cochrane Library and one of these, of the effects of antibiotics, was updated in June 2017. We asked the lead author, Susan Smith, a GP from Dublin, Ireland, based at the Department of General Practice in the RCSI Medical School, to tell us what they found.

The Cochrane Stroke Group has produced nearly 200 systematic reviews over the last two decades and many of these have been updated multiple times. Among these is a review of the effects of early discharge services, which was published first in 2001. It was updated in July 2017 and lead author and one of the Co-ordinating Editors for Cochrane Stroke, Peter Langhorne from the University of Glasgow in Scotland, describes these latest findings in this podcast.

Many potentially life-saving treatments have side effects that can have a substantial negative impact on a patient’s quality of life. Therefore, alongside Cochrane Reviews that look at the potentially beneficial effects of treatments, are those that examine ways to reduce their adverse effects. One such review, newly published in July 2017 looks at ways to protect the salivary glands during radiotherapy. Review authors, Philip Riley and Anne-Marie Glenny from Cochrane Oral Health at the University of Manchester in the UK, tell us what they found.

The Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group is producing a series of reviews of exercise interventions for people with the painful condition, fibromyalgia. One of these, published in June 2017, examines the effects of aerobic exercise training. In this podcast, Hayley Hassan, on behalf of the authors, describes the findings.

Healthcare-associated infection is a major problem for health systems, causing concern, unnecessary illness and death. It is receiving further priority from policy-makers because it contributes to the global threat of antimicrobial resistance. Hand hygiene is regarded as an effective preventative measure and the September 2017 update of a Cochrane Review provides evidence on the effects of various interventions. Lead author, Dinah Gould from the School of Healthcare Sciences at Cardiff University in Wales brings us up to date in this podcast.

In August 2017, we published the third update of the Cochrane Review of homocysteine-lowering interventions with B complex vitamins for preventing cardiovascular disease. The review investigates their impact on this common cause of death and we asked one of the authors, Mark Dayer from Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust in the UK, to bring us up to date in this podcast.

Despite recent improvements in maternity care, as called for in the Millennium Development Goals, many mothers still die during childbirth in low- and middle-income countries. As part of the efforts to achieve further improvements, a new Cochrane systematic review of qualitative studies from November 2017 looks at the factors that can influence a skilled birth attendant’s ability to provide good quality maternity care. We asked lead author, Susan Munabi-Babigumira from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health to tell us more in this podcast.

More than 100 Cochrane Reviews of interventions for people with cystic fibrosis are now underway, with nearly ninety published in full. In October 2017, this list was added to with a review of the effects of a breathing technique called autogenic drainage. We asked the lead author, Pamela McCormack from Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool in the UK, to tell us what they found.

When a patient receives a kidney transplant, there is a possibility that their body will reject this new organ and a variety of treatments are used to try to prevent this. However, these treatments can cause their own unwanted side effects. In a new Cochrane Review in July 2017, Krishna Karpe and colleagues from Canberra Hospital in Australia looked at the evidence for alleviating this for the group of drugs known as Calcineurin inhibitors. Here’s Krishna to tell us what they found.

Developmental co-ordination disorder is a common childhood disorder, which makes it difficult for the child to perform essential movement-based activities. One of the possible treatments is called task-oriented intervention, and a new Cochrane Review from July 2017 looks at the evidence for this. Lead author, Motohide Miyahara, from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand tells us what they found in this podcast.

The co-authors of this review were Susan Hillier, Liz Pridham, and Shinichi Nakagawa.