Welcome

Welcome to the The Cochrane Peripheral Vascular Diseases Group's website

The Collaborative Review Group on Peripheral Vascular Diseases (PVD) was formed in October 1995, supported by funding from the Scottish Office.  The group continues to be funded by the Chief Scientist Office, the Scottish Executive. The group aims to evaluate all surgical and medical interventions for the prevention or treatment of arterial and venous diseases. The scope of topics covered by the group includes: aortic aneurysm; lower limb arterial occlusive disease, including intermittent claudication and critical limb ischaemia; and venous diseases including varicose veins and thromboembolism.

The PVD Group has an active membership of over 400 members in 26 different countries. Members include both medical and surgical specialists, hospital administrators, policy makers and statisticians. Members help the group in a variety of ways including preparing systematic reviews. At present approximately 300 members are actively involved in preparing reviews for the group. An increasing number of 'consumers' contribute to the production of published protocols and reviews.

The activities of the Cochrane PVD Group are co-ordinated from the editorial base in Edinburgh. A small team of specialised staff working at the base is responsible for the administration of the group, and also support the group's international team of editors. In addition to producing systematic reviews part of the group's remit is to establish and maintain a specialised register of trials. This involves searching published and unpublished medical literature, to identify and collate information regarding randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs) in the field of peripheral vascular disease.  Search Strategies have been developed in association with the UK Cochrane Centre to identify relevant trials using both EMBASE and MEDLINE databases. These databases are regularly searched to keep up to date with new publications as they appear in the literature. The PVD Group has also searched a number of conference proceedings from major conferences dating back to 1975  in the field of peripheral vascular diseases. The PVD Group's specialised register of trials currently contains over 6800 references to randomised controlled trials in peripheral vascular disease published since 1950. This valuable source of information is available to authors and other interested parties through the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), on The Cochrane Library.

In addition, the Collaboration as a whole, has an extensive handsearching programme, where over 4000 journals have been, and continue to be handsearched by Collaboration members. This includes many journals not featured on any medical database. Handsearching involves systematic reading of journals page-by-page, including editorials and letters, to identify reports of potentially relevant trials. Possibly as many as 50% of professional journals, both English and non-English, are not featured on any database.

This web site has been developed to publicise the activities of the Cochrane PVD Group. If you would like to help the group please complete and submit a membership form.

The Cochrane Collaboration

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international network of people with an interest in evidence-based healthcare, encompassing healthcare professionals, researchers, and consumers. The Collaboration was established in 1992, and named after Archie Cochrane, an epidemiologist who recognised the importance of critically evaluating healthcare interventions, to help distinguish effective treatments from those of no benefit. The Collaboration is dedicated to producing, maintaining, and updating comprehensive, impartial systematic reviews of healthcare interventions. To date fifty one Collaborative Review Groups (CRGs) have been formed within the Collaboration,  each covering a different aspect of healthcare.  Each group is responsible for co-ordinating the gathering of information and preparation of systematic reviews, within its specialised area. The reviews are then published as part of The Cochrane Library.

The Cochrane Library is a quarterly publication available on CD-ROM, or the Worldwide Web (WWW).  This electronic publication allows the information contained within it to be updated and reviewed through the promotion of open and critical appraisal of the information. The Library features a number of useful databases including:
The Cochrane Database of Sytematic Reviews (CDSR). This is one of the main features of the Library, and includes all the systematic reviews produced within the Collaboration.
The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL). This contains all of the randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and controlled clinical trials (CCTs) identified by the CRGs in their specialised trials registers. It is probably the most comprehensive source of trial evidence currently available.
The Database of Abstracts of Reviews and Effectiveness (DARE). This features structured abstracts of systematic reviews which have been critically appraised by authors from the NHS Centre for Reviews & Dissemination in York.

The Cochrane Methodology Register (CMR). This is a bibliography of articles and books dedicated to the science of evidence based research.