Background: Reporting of trial location is often poor and indexing of trial location within bibliographic databases can be inconsistent. Searching disease-specific trials registers may provide a searching tool with increased precision for location-specific trials research. Objectives: 1) To identify, describe and analyze randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of African HIV/AIDS trials reported between 2004 and 2008. 2) To demonstrate the utility of searching a trials registry for location-specific trials research. Methods: The Cochrane HIV/AIDS Specialized Trials Register is a study-based register in Meerkat. It is updated with records from quarterly searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE and ad hoc conference proceedings. The study design field for each record is coded as either a ‘RCT’, a ‘controlled clinical trial’ or ‘to be confirmed’ from the full-text. We searched the Registry for RCTs in April 2009 using the built-in Meerkat search tool, exported these to ProCite. Two researchers independently identified RCTs conducted in Africa between 2004 and 2008 and extracted data using a standardized form. Results: The Registry contained 2026 RCTs, of which 300 were reported between 2004 and 2008. Of these, 40 were African RCTs from: Tanzania (9), South Africa (8), Zambia (6), Kenya (5), Malawi (4), Uganda (4) and Zimbabwe (3), with one trial conducted in four African countries. Levels of agreement for eligibility between investigators was 90%.Thirty-one trials were prevention (behavioural: 6; prevention of mother-to-child transmission; 14; male circumcision: 2; opportunistic infections: 9), eight were treatment trials and one was a pharmacokinetic trial. We will obtain full-text articles to extract additional data for the included RCTs. Conclusion: Searching a Trials Registry pre-coded for RCTs can greatly reduce the yield of records compared with searching the major databases. However, search facilities in Meerkat are limited requiring export to ProCite for more complex searching. Addition of such search features to Meerkat would greatly enhance its utility.