Renea V Johnston

• PhD
• Editor at Monash University (Australia)

Objectives This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows: To determine the benefits and harms of dose reduction or discontinuation of biologic disease‐modifying anti‐rheumatic drugs or targeted synthetic disease‐modifying anti‐rheumatic drugs in adults with psoriatic arthritis who are in remission or a low d...

Background: Manual therapy and prescribed exercises are often provided together or separately in contemporary clinical practice to treat people with lateral elbow pain. Objectives: To assess the benefits and harms of manual therapy, prescribed exercises or both for adults with lateral elbow pain. Search methods: We searched the databases CENTR...

Background: Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is the most common rheumatic disease in childhood. Methotrexate has broad immunomodulatory properties and is the most commonly used disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD). This is an update of a 2001 Cochrane review. It supports a living guideline for children and young people with JIA. Object...

To develop and maintain a living registry of all completed or in-progress RCTs and quasi-RCTs that include patients with a diagnosis of JIA to aid in the development of living systematic reviews and guidelines.

Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) are effective treatments for inflammatory arthritis but carry an increased risk of infection. For patients undergoing surgery there is a need to consider the trade-off between a theoretical increased risk of infection with continuation of DMARDs perioperatively versus an increased risk of disease flare...

Biological and targeted synthetic disease‐modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs) have been an important advance in the management of inflammatory arthritis, but are expensive medications, carry a risk of infection and other adverse effects, and are often perceived as a burden by patients. We used GRADE methodology to develop recommendations for...

Background: Arthroscopic knee surgery remains a common treatment for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis, including for degenerative meniscal tears, despite guidelines strongly recommending against its use. This Cochrane Review is an update of a non-Cochrane systematic review published in 2017. Objectives: To assess the benefits and harms of arthros...

Background: Autologous whole blood or platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are commonly used to treat lateral elbow pain (also known as tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis or epicondylalgia). Based on animal models and observational studies, these injections may modulate tendon injury healing, but randomised controlled trials have reported inco...

Background: This is an updated Cochrane Review, first published in 2006 and updated in 2014. Gout is one of the most common rheumatic diseases worldwide. Despite the use of colchicine as one of the first-line therapies for the treatment of acute gout, evidence for its benefits and harms is relatively limited. Objectives: To update the available...

Background: Despite widespread use, our 2012 Cochrane review did not confirm that use of imaging to guide glucocorticoid injection for people with shoulder pain improves its efficacy. Objectives: To update our review and assess the benefits and harms of image-guided glucocorticoid injection compared to non-image-guided injection for patients wit...

Objectives: This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (intervention). The objectives are as follows:. To synthesise the evidence for benefits and harms of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination for people with autoimmune rheumatic diseases on immunomodulatory therapies. Copyright © 2021 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Aim to compare the effectiveness and harms of higher exercise dose, including higher exercise load and/or higher volume, with lower exercise dose (lower load and/or lower volume) in people with rotator cuff tendinopathy Design Systematic review (PROSPERO: CRD42017077478) Data sources CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL from inception to March 2019....

Background: Shock wave therapy has seen widespread use since the 1990s to treat various musculoskeletal disorders including rotator cuff disease, but evidence of its efficacy remains equivocal. Objectives: To determine the benefits and harms of shock wave therapy for rotator cuff disease, with or without calcification, and to establish its usefu...

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows:. To synthesise the available evidence regarding the benefits and harms of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (focused extracorporeal shockwave therapy and radial pulse therapy) in the treatment of plantar heel pain. Copyright © 2019 The Cochrane Collaboration. Pub...

This chapter describes the processes by which the structure of the synthesis can be mapped out at the beginning of the systematic review, and the interplay between the review question, considerations for the analysis and their operationalization in terms of eligibility criteria. Decisions about which studies to include (and exclude), and how they w...

The revised edition of the Handbook offers the only guide on how to conduct, report and maintain a Cochrane Review. The second edition of The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions contains essential guidance for preparing and maintaining Cochrane Reviews of the effects of health interventions. Designed to be an accessible resou...

Background: Patellar tendinopathy is an overuse condition that commonly affects athletes. Surgery is usually offered if medical and physical therapies fail to treat it effectively. There is variation in the type of surgery performed for the condition. Objectives: To assess the benefits and harms of surgery for patellar tendinopathy in adults. S...

Synthesis is a process of bringing together data from a set of included studies with the aim of drawing conclusions about a body of evidence. This will include synthesis of study characteristics and, potentially, statistical synthesis of study findings. The Population, Intervention, Comparator and Outcome (PICO) for each synthesis (also planned at...

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the benefits and harms of stem cell injections for people with osteoarthritis of the knee, in terms of pain, function, disease progression, quality of life, and adverse events. © 2019 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Background: Venous leg ulcers are complex, costly, and their prevalence is expected to increase as populations age. Venous congestion is a possible cause of venous leg ulcers, which subfascial endoscopic perforator surgery (SEPS) attempts to address by removing the connection between deep and superficial veins (perforator veins). The effectiveness...

Background: Surgery for rotator cuff disease is usually used after non-operative interventions have failed, although our Cochrane Review, first published in 2007, found that there was uncertain clinical benefit following subacromial decompression surgery. Objectives: To synthesise the available evidence of the benefits and harms of subacromial d...

Background: Clavicle fractures are common, accounting for 2.6% to 4% of all fractures. Eighty per cent of clavicle fractures are located in the middle third of the clavicle. Although treatment of these fractures is usually non-surgical, displaced clavicle fractures may be considered for surgical treatment because of their greater risk of non-union...

Objective Describe research methods used in priority-setting exercises for musculoskeletal conditions and synthesise the priorities identified. Design Scoping review. Setting and population Studies that elicited the research priorities of patients/consumers, clinicians, researchers, policy-makers and/or funders for any musculoskeletal condition w...

Background: Percutaneous vertebroplasty remains widely used to treat osteoporotic vertebral fractures although our 2015 Cochrane review did not support its role in routine practice. Objectives: To update the available evidence of the benefits and harms of vertebroplasty for treatment of osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Search methods: We upda...

This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the benefits and harms of manual therapy and exercise, alone or in combination, compared to placebo, no treatment, or another treatment, in adults with lateral elbow pain.

Background: Percutaneous vertebroplasty remains widely used to treat osteoporotic vertebral fractures although our 2015 Cochrane review did not support its role in routine practice. Objectives: To update the available evidence of the benefits and harms of vertebroplasty for treatment of osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Search methods: We upda...

Standard best practice for the treatment of venous leg ulcers (VLUs) is compression bandaging of the lower leg to reduce hydrostatic pressure. There is considerable variation in reported healing rates when using this gold-standard approach; therefore, a systematic and robust evaluation of other interventions is required. Exercise interventions, in...

A living systematic review (LSR) should keep the review current as new research evidence emerges. Any meta-analyses included in the review will also need updating as new material is identified. If the aim of the review is solely to present the best current evidence standard meta-analysis may be sufficient, provided reviewers are aware that results...

New approaches to evidence synthesis, which utilise human effort and machine automation in mutually reinforcing ways, can enhance the feasibility and sustainability of living systematic reviews. Human effort is a scarce and valuable resource, required when automation is impossible or undesirable, and includes contributions from online communities (...

Background: Percutaneous vertebroplasty is widely used to treat acute and subacute painful osteoporotic vertebral fractures although recent placebo-controlled trials have questioned its value. Objectives: To synthesise the available evidence regarding the benefits and harms of vertebroplasty for treatment of osteoporotic vertebral fractures. Se...

Background: Adhesive capsulitis (also termed frozen shoulder) is a common condition characterised by spontaneous onset of pain, progressive restriction of movement of the shoulder and disability that restricts activities of daily living, work and leisure. Electrotherapy modalities, which aim to reduce pain and improve function via an increase in e...

Background: Adhesive capsulitis (also termed frozen shoulder) is commonly treated by manual therapy and exercise, usually delivered together as components of a physical therapy intervention. This review is one of a series of reviews that form an update of the Cochrane review, 'Physiotherapy interventions for shoulder pain.' Objectives: To synthe...

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: To determine the benefits and safety of autologous whole blood and platelet rich plasma injections for people with lateral elbow pain.

Self-management education programmes are complex interventions specifically targeted at patient education and behaviour modification. They are designed to encourage people with chronic disease to take an active self-management role to supplement medical care and improve outcomes. To assess the effectiveness of self-management education programmes f...

For rheumatology research to have a real influence on health and well-being, evidence must be tailored to inform the decisions of various audiences. The Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group (CMSG), one of 53 groups of the not-for-profit international Cochrane Collaboration, prepares, maintains, and disseminates systematic reviews of treatments for muscul...

The Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group (CMSG), one of 53 groups of the not-for-profit, international Cochrane Collaboration, prepares, maintains, and disseminates systematic reviews of treatments for musculoskeletal diseases. It is important that authors conducting CMSG reviews and the readers of our reviews be aware of and use updated, state-of-the-ar...

Shoulder pain is a very common symptom. Disorders of the rotator cuff tendons due to wear or tear are among the most common causes of shoulder pain and disability. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), magnetic resonance arthrography (MRA) and ultrasound (US) are increasingly being used to assess the presence and size of rotator cuff tears to assist in...

Chronic venous ulcer healing is a complex clinical problem that requires intervention from skilled, costly, multidisciplinary wound-care teams. Compression therapy has been shown to help heal venous ulcers and to reduce the risk of recurrence. It is not known which interventions help people adhere to compression treatments. To assess the benefits a...

Background: Clavicle fractures are common, accounting for 2.6% to 4% of all fractures. Eighty per cent of clavicle fractures are located in the middle third of the clavicle. Although treatment of these fractures is usually non-surgical, displaced clavicle fractures may be considered for surgical treatment because of their greater risk of non-union...

Health consumers increasingly want access to accurate, evidence-based information about their medications. Currently, education about medications (that is, information that is designed to achieve health or illness related learning) is provided predominantly via spoken communication between the health provider and consumer, sometimes supplemented wi...

Traditionally, glucocorticoid injection for the treatment of shoulder pain has been performed guided by anatomical landmarks alone. With the advent of readily available imaging tools such as ultrasound, image-guided injections have increasingly become accepted into routine care. While there is some evidence that the use of imaging improves accuracy...

Surgery is sometimes recommended for persistent lateral elbow pain where other less invasive interventions have failed. To determine the benefits and safety of surgery for lateral elbow pain. We searched CENTRAL (The Cochrane Library), MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and Web of Science unrestricted by date or language (to 15 December 2010). Randomised and...

Rotator cuff disease is a common cause of shoulder pain. Topical glyceryl trinitrate is a possible new treatment. To determine the effectiveness and safety of topical glyceryl trinitrate for rotator cuff disease. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, PEDro, the Australian Cli...

Background: Metacarpophalangeal (MCP) arthroplasty with implants, which is the replacement of painful knuckle joints with artificial knuckle joints, has been performed for people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) since the 1960s. The surgery is done because RA can cause damage of the knuckle joints making them unable to straighten out (flexion deform...

This review is one in a series of Cochrane reviews of interventions for shoulder disorders. To determine the effectiveness and safety of surgery for rotator cuff disease. We searched the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, (The Cochrane Library Issue 1, 2006), MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Sports Discus, Science Citation Index (Web of Science) in March...

Adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder or painful stiff shoulder) is characterised by spontaneous onset of shoulder pain accompanied by progressive stiffness and disability. It is usually self-limiting but often has a prolonged course over two to three years. To determine the effectiveness and safety of arthrographic distension of the glenohumeral jo...

Arousal and cardio-respiratory responses to respiratory stimuli during sleep are important protective mechanisms that rapidly become depressed in the active sleep state when episodes of hypoxia or asphyxia are repeated: whether responses to repeated hypercapnia are similarly depressed is not known. This study aimed to determine if arousal and cardi...

This review is one in a series of Cochrane reviews of interventions for shoulder pain in adults. To determine the efficacy and safety of oral steroids for adhesive capsulitis. Searches of the Cochrane Library including CENTRAL, Issue 4, 2005, Cochrane Musculoskeletal Review Group Register, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL were conducted in November 2005, un...

• Arousal from sleep is an important protective response to hypoxia that becomes rapidly depressed in active sleep (AS) when hypoxia is repeated. This study questioned whether there might also be selective depression of cardio-respiratory responses to hypoxia during AS. • Nine newborn lambs (7-22 days of age) were studied over three successive nigh...

To conduct a systematic review of the evidence for the effectiveness of five visual electrodiagnostic tests to inform the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) of the Department of Health and Ageing (Australia) in its decision in allocating public funding for new technologies. We searched the biomedical literature to identify English-language...

Arousal from sleep is an important protective mechanism that is depressed by repeated episodes of hypoxia. We aimed to determine how rapidly arousal depression occurs during repeated hypoxia and to determine if the depression is sleep state specific. Three successive 12 h overnight sleep recordings were performed in six newborn lambs instrumented t...

Laser doppler flowmeters were used to measure blood flow in the skin of the forehead and volar surface of the forearm of infants at 2-9 days of age, and at 8-12 weeks of age. At both ages mean skin blood flow was higher during active sleep compared to quiet sleep. In infants up to 9 days of age, mean skin blood flow was higher in forehead skin comp...