Cochrane Library Podcasts

The Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group oversees the reviews of interventions to help people with alcohol and other drug problems. In May 2016, their review of the use of alpha two adrenergic agonists for managing opioid withdrawal was updated by Linda Gowing from the University of Adelaide in Australia and her colleagues. Linda describes the latest findings in this podcast.

Pneumonia is an especially serious problem for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and it’s important to know if vaccination can prevent it. In an updated Cochrane Review from January 2017, Julia Walters from the Cochrane Airways Group in Australia and her colleagues have reviewed the latest evidence and she tells us what they found in this podcast.

Renal vasculitis causes damage to the small blood vessels inside the kidneys and – when untreated – leads to a rapid loss of kidney function. Therapies that block the immune system to switch off the vasculitis process are available but can lead to serious infections and other long term complications. As vasculitis is uncommon, it has been difficult to establish the most effective and safest treatment, because studies have often been too small to detect these effects reliably. One way to try to overcome this, is to combine the results of similar studies and, in September 2015, Giles Walters and his colleagues in Australia did this by updating the Cochrane Review of studies of treatments to induce and maintain disease remission for renal vasculitis. Giles tells us what they found in this podcast.

One of the complications after surgery, is that the patient might develop an infection at the site of the wound. Clare Heal from the James Cook University in Mackay in Australia and colleagues have investigated the effects of applying antibiotics to the skin to prevent this in a new Cochrane Review, published in November 2016. She tells us what they found in this podcast.

Eczema is a common chronic skin disease that affects many people worldwide, and they will often turn to creams to help. In a new Cochrane Review from February 2017, Zbys Fedorowicz from Cochrane Bahrain and colleagues have brought together the relevant evidence from nearly 80 trials and we asked him to describe their findings.

Babies who are born preterm or have very low birth weight struggle to survive and need intensive care. Even if they do survive, they are at high risk of chronic lung disease and corticosteroids are one of the treatments used to prevent this. In an updated Cochrane Review from January 2017, Vibhuti Shah from the University of Toronto in Canada and colleagues have reviewed the latest evidence on the use of inhaled corticosteroids and tells us about it in this podcast.

Several dozen Cochrane Reviews examine the effects of methods to help people quit smoking. A new review in November 2016 adds to this evidence by considering interventions targeted at people with substance use disorders. We asked lead author, Dorie Apollonio from the University of California San Francisco in the USA, to tell us what they found in this podcast.

There is considerable interest in detecting vesicoureteral reflux in children, a condition in which urine can flow backwards from the bladder to the kidney, and cause kidney damage. It can be diagnosed with a test called a voiding cystourethrogram, but this is invasive and exposes children to x-rays. It’s important therefore to find other accurate methods and a new Cochrane Review from July 2016 evaluated two possible alternative imaging tests as ways to identify children who have vesicoureteral reflux and are at higher risks of long-term kidney damage, but with less discomfort and radiation than a voiding cystourethrogram. The review was done by Dr. Nader Shaikh and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the USA. In this podcast, his colleague, Dr Stephanie Hum tells us what they found.

It is generally recommended that babies should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, but most are given some additional fluids or foods during this period. In August 2016, Hazel Smith from Our Lady's Children's Hospital in Dublin and Genevieve Becker from BEST services in Galway in Ireland updated the Cochrane Review of the randomised trials and we asked Hazel to tell us about their current findings in this podcast.

As the number of systematic reviews grows, there is an increasing need for overviews in which the findings from multiple reviews in the same general area is brought together. This happened for symptomatic treatments for motor neurone disease in January 2017 and lead author on this new Cochrane Overview, Louisa Ng from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia spoke with Brian Dickie from the UK Motor Neurone Disease Association about the evidence.