Abstract
The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. Issue 2 2009 contains 3826 complete reviews, 1959 protocols for reviews in production, and 9964 one-page summaries of systematic reviews published in the general medical literature. In addition, there are citations of 576,000 randomized controlled trials, and 11,500 cited papers in the Cochrane methodology register. The health technology assessment database contains 7717 citations. This edition of the Library contains 89 new reviews, of which 10 have potential relevance for practitioners in pain and palliative medicine.