EJPRM systematic continuous update on Cochrane reviews in rehabilitation: news from July to December 2011.

AIM: Evidence in medicine depends on original studies but also comes from systematic review. The most the literature grows up, the most systematic reviews are needed to synthesize the evidence, since this can help operators in decision making. The Cochrane reviews are considered the most reliable instruments of synthesis, being based on a strict methodology. Since 2007 the EJPRM offer the service of listing and presenting all these reviews systematically. The aim of the present paper was to methodically review all the new rehabilitation papers published from July 2011 up to December 2011 from the Cochrane Library in order to provide to physicians involved in the field a summary of the best evidence nowadays available. METHODS: The authors thoroughly searched all the new papers of rehabilitative interest from the July 14 to December 4, 2011 in the Cochrane Library. The retrieved papers have been consequently divided in subgroups on the base of the topic and the Cochrane Groups. RESULTS: The number of included papers was seven, five were new reviews and two were updates. A synthesis of their abstracts is presented. CONCLUSION: The field of rehabilitation, being cross-sectional to the whole medicine, can be of interest for many specialty. This was documented by the large number of Cochrane Group publishing reviews of rehabilitative interest. Reviewing periodically the Cochrane reviews is a good way to remain up to date and to find solid bases for everyday clinical practice.