Evaluating systematic reviews in urology: A practical guide

Systematic reviews of good quality randomized controlled trials that have little heterogeneity (variability) are considered to provide the best source of evidence for the efficacy of interventions in healthcare. With the recent national provision for access to The Cochrane Library to all residents in India, urologists and other clinicians now have access to this reliable source of regularly updated systematic reviews. This article uses six systematic reviews relevant to urologists from The Cochrane Library produced by different collaborative review groups in The Cochrane Collaboration to illustrate the methods used to minimize bias, improve transparency and provide reliable estimates of treatment effects. Issues in evaluating results, especially when subsequent trials produce discrepant results, are discussed.