THE COCHRANE COLLABORATION STROKE REVIEW GROUP - MEETING THE NEED FORSYSTEMATIC REVIEWS IN STROKE CARE

Background There is a pressing need to identify which interventions ar e definitely effective in the prevention of stroke and in the treatmen t and rehabilitation of stroke patients, which interventions are defin itely ineffective, and which interventions require further research. T his information is most reliably obtained from reviewing all the avail able evidence from randomized controlled trials in a systematic way. S ummary of Comment There have been many (at least 800) randomized contr olled trials relevant to stroke. It would be difficult for any one ind ividual to keep track of all these trials, and therefore most clinicia ns, therapists, and researchers are dependent, to some degree, on revi ews of this literature. However, most current reviews are unsystematic and tend to be either incomplete or biased, so that their recommendat ions can be seriously flawed. Until now there has been no attempt to s ystematically identify all randomized controlled trials relevant to st roke (including subarachnoid hemorrhage), to review the data they cont ain, and to keep these reviews up-to-date in the light of new evidence . The Stroke Review Group has now been established within the Cochrane Collaboration to try to perform these tasks. There are presently 40 c ollaborators from 13 countries working on approximately 25 reviews. Co nclusions Identifying and reviewing all randomized controlled trials r elevant to stroke should bring important benefits to patients and all those involved in purchasing or providing care for patients with strok e. The Cochrane Collaboration Stroke Review Group has started this pro cess and would welcome help from anyone interested in collaborating in this enormous task.