When you set out to do a literature search
you generally have a purpose. Because it will help to give a backbone to the workshop we
will assume your aim will be one of five general types and will use an example. On the
first go round I suggest that you follow the example. If the types of searches have been
chosen well you should be able to come back to this with your own problem and follow the
steps using your own subject.
In this situation you have been confronted
with an unfamiliar clinical situation or question and have an urgent need to find out
something about it. Our question will be hip arthroplasty in Osteopetrosis
There is such a large volume of research work
done that you can be overwhelmed by citations that seemingly are on the subject. The
"gold standard" in terms of evidence based medicine is the randomised control
trial. PubMed has filters to winnow out such studies. The topic chosen is prophylactic anticoagulation
after hip fractures.
This type of list would be suitable for
rounds or the starting off point for a review of the subject. The subject selected is non-union
of clavicle fractures
The task is to get a list which includes
everything on the subject with the least amount of extraneous material. For a large
subject this would be a big task. Injuries of the lateral collateral ligament of the
knee is the topic
We have all "lost" a paper. We know
someone has written a vaulable paper on a specific subject but don't have the reference,
and can't remember enough about the paper to pin it down. This is one of the most
difficult searches. We will try to find the original papers published by Neer on the
classification of shoulder fractures. Granted we could find this easily in a good
textbook. But this is an exercise!
Step 3 is
to select the type of search which interests you and click on that link
Use the navigation links to the left to
return to the workshop, or the COA link on the banner to return to the home page