Cochrane Library Podcasts

Vitiligo is a common skin disease affecting about 1% of the world's children and adults. The evidence for a wide range of treatments has been brought together in an updated Cochrane Review produced in February 2015. The review was carried out by Maxine Whitton from the Cochrane Skin Group at the University of Nottingham in the UK and colleagues. She describes the condition and their work and findings in this podcast.

Diabetic macular oedema is a common complication of diabetes, in which damage to the blood vessels at the back of the eye leads to swelling. Lasers have been used for some time to treat this but an alternative approach might be antiangiogenic therapy with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor. In October 2014, Gianni Virgili from the University of Florence in Italy, and colleagues, updated the review of the effects of these drugs.

Age-related macular degeneration is a major course of vision problems but recent years have seen the arrival of treatments that might not only slow vision loss, but reverse it. Sharon Solomon from the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine located in Baltimore USA describes the findings from the August 2014 update of the Cochrane Review examining the effects of a class of drugs that might help, the anti-vascular endothelial growth factors.

Pregnant women with epilepsy need reliable information about the possible effects of antiepileptic drugs on their baby. Rebecca Bromley from the Institute of Human Development at the University of Manchester in the UK and others brought together the relevant research evidence in a new Cochrane Review in October 2014. She describes what they found.

Misuse of alcohol is a major public health challenge around the world. One strategy that has been tried to minimise the harm is the banning of alcohol promotion and advertising. The evidence on the effects of this has been investigated in a Cochrane Review that was published in November 2014. One of the authors, Charles Parry from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Unit in the South African Medical Research Council, discusses its findings and implications.

People with cystic fibrosis are particularly susceptible to chest infections, some of which can become chronic. It’s important, therefore to try to find treatments for these infections and an updated Cochrane Review from the Cochrane Cystic Fibrosis and Genetic Disorders Group examines the evidence for the use of antibiotics. Alan Smyth, a Coordinating Editor for the Group, who is based in University of Nottingham in the UK, and one of the authors of this November 2014 review tells us more.
If you would like to find out more about the TORPEDO trial which he mentions, go to www.torpedo-cf.org.uk.

Some of the reviews from the Cochrane Anaesthesia Group look at ways to reduce the risks of surgery and one such review was published in September 2014, investigating the role of beta-blockers. Hermann Blessberger from the Linz General Hospital in Austria, describes the findings.

Some patients who present for health care have symptoms that have no clear medical cause. These are called somatic symptoms, and a variety of treatments have been tried for them. A team of Cochrane researchers have looked into the evidence for drug treatments and the lead author, Maria Kleinstäuber from Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany, describes the findings of their review, which was published in November 2014.

Over the last decade, a group of researchers in Australia and New Zealand have been working on pair of Cochrane Reviews looking at the possible role of antioxidants for male and female infertility, updating these to take account of new information. The latest update of the review for men was published in December 2014 and the lead author, Marian Showell from the University of Auckland in New Zealand describes the findings.

Many patients in intensive care units will require mechanical ventilation at some point, which often causes them major distress and anxiety. Identifying effective ways to alleviate this is important and one option might be music. Cheryl Dileo, from the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University in the Philadelphia, USA, describes the evidence from the December 2014 update of her Cochrane Review.