Medline Search Strategies

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Practice Question and Search Strategy
Within the intensive care population, the use of prophylactic treatment is used to prevent the risk of venous thrombosis. These patients in particular are at a greater risk for developing thromboembolism due to heightened immobility. The increased risk of venous thrombosis occurs in this population due to the use of mechanical ventilation, sedation and paralytics (Cook & Crowther, 2010). Venous thrombosis can significantly increase the risk of a patient developing a pulmonary embolism. Additionally, it can create long term impacts such as post-thrombotic syndrome. This syndrome occurs twenty to fifty percent after the development of the thrombosis. This can have momentous impacts on individual’s ability …show more content…

The process of how the articles were selected to answer the above question will be discussed. The two search databases which were used included MEDLINE and CINAHL. The MEDLINE search engine was used first as demonstrated in appendix A. At the beginning of the search, a broad search with no limits were indicated to assess the literature in its entirety and to determine how many articles were associated with the research question posed. First the keywords used were “venous thrombosis” and “thrombosis or thromboembolism or anticoagulation” and “prophylaxis” to determine the results. This yielded 3401 results, however it was discovered that by using “or” as a Boolean operator rather than “and” lead the discovery of articles which were not appropriately related. The articles did not have all the criteria required to answer the proposed PICO question. Therefore, the Boolean operators were changed to meet the criteria of the question. This included using the keywords “venous thrombosis” and “anticoagulation” and “prophylaxis” together, this yielded 2119 results. Then critical care was added to the search to ensure its applicability to this population group. When combining the search terms “venous thrombosis” “anticoagulation” “prophylaxis” and “critical care” were selected together which had 22 results. When the articles were assessed they were not correlated with research question as they tended to discuss children, venovenous hemofiltration and major traumas. Therefore “venous thrombosis” “prophylaxis” “anticoagulation” and “intensive care units” to determine if the results would differ, 37 results were found, yet they still did not appropriately correlate therefore the use of the term “pulmonary embolism” was also combined and 13 results were discovered. Since venous thrombosis is a common occurrence associated with pulmonary embolism, this was deemed to be more inclusive for the search strategy. The

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