Abstract
The Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews is published quarterly. Issue 4 for 2008 contains 3625 complete reviews, 1921 protocols for reviews in production, and 9025 one-page summaries of systematic reviews published in the general medical literature. In addition, there are citations of 549,000 randomized controlled trials, and 10,900 cited papers in the Cochrane methodology register. The health technology assessment database contains 7500 citations. This edition of the Library contains 84 new reviews of which 5 have potential relevance for practitioners in pain and palliative medicine.