Aftercare of wounds from abdominal surgery

Post-operative scars on the abdomen can occur after, for example, bowel surgery or surgery of hernias. The scars can hurt, lead to tightening of the skin, cause persistent itching or be aesthetically disturbing.

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SBU Enquiry Service

Responds to queries received from Swedish healthcare and social service providers, or governmental organisations. Queries have a limited scope and the process is designed to enable a more rapid response, typically within two to three months. Reports are based on systematic reviews, that are identified through structured searches and critically appraised for risk of bias.

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Published: Report no: ut202315 Registration no: SBU 2022/849

Question

What systematic reviews have been published regarding aftercare of wounds from abdominal surgery?

Method

A systematic literature search was performed using the following databases: Medline (Ovid) and SCOPUS.

Two authors independently assessed the abstracts of all identified studies.

Identified literature

No relevant studies were identified.

Literature search

Medline via OvidSP 6 February 2003

Title: Aftercare of wounds from abdominal surgery

* Cochrane Highly Sensitive Search Strategy for identifying randomized trials in MEDLINE: sensitivity- and precision-maximizing version (2008 revision); Ovid format. The Cochrane Collaboration; 2008. Available from: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/current/chapter-04-technical-supplement-searching-and-selecting-studies#section-3-6-1. with modifications: the following terms are added: clinical trial, phase iii.pt. ; randomised.ab. ; ("Phase 3" or "phase3" or "phase III" or P3 or "PIII").ti,ab,kw.

/ = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; .sh = Term from the MeSH controlled vocabulary; exp = Term from MeSH including terms found below this term in the MeSH hierarchy; .ti,ab = Title or abstract; .tw = Title or abstract; .kf = Keywords; .kw = Keywords, exact; .bt = Book title. NLM Bookshelf.; .pt = Publication type; .ja = Journal abbreviation; .af = All fields; adjn = Adjacent. Proximity operator retrieving adjacent words, adj3 retrieves records with search terms within two terms from each other.; * or $ = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
1. (post-operative or postoperative or post-surg* or postsurg* or post-discharge or postdischarge).ti,ab,kf,bt. 681 545
2. (care or after care or aftercare or after-care or instruction* or recommendation* or management or treatment* or prevent).ti,ab,kf,bt. 7 934 179
3. ((post-operative or postoperative or post-surg* or postsurg* or post-discharge or postdischarge) adj4 (care or instruction* or recommendation* or management or treatment* or prevent)).ti,ab,kf,bt. 62 446
4. exp Aftercare/ or exp Postoperative Care/ 281 986
5. 3 OR 4 8 078 360
6. exp Surgical Wound/ or exp wound healing/ or exp cicatrix/ or gliosis/ 164 439
7. (skin or wound* or cicatrix or scar* or keloid*).ti,ab,kf,bt. 1 024 032
8. 7 OR 8 1 102 999
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis / randomized controlled trials*
9. ((Systematic Review/ or Meta-Analysis/ or Cochrane Database Syst Rev.ja. or ((systematic adj4 review) or "meta analys*" or metaanalys*).ti,bt,ab.) not (editorial/ or letter/ or case reports/)) 417 891
Final result
10. 5 AND 8 AND 9 512

Scopus via scopus.com 5 February 2023

Title: Aftercare of wounds from abdominal surgery

TITLE-ABS-KEY = Title, abstract or keywords (including indexed keywords and author keywords); ALL = All fields; W/n = Within. Proximity operator retrieving terms within n words from each other.; PRE/n = Precedes by. Proximity operator, the first term in the search must precede the second by n words.; LIMIT-TO (X) = Includes only results of specified type, e.g., publication type or time range.; DOCTYPE = Publication type; “re” = review; “le” = letter; “ed” = editorial; “ch” = book chapter; “cp” = conference proceedings; * = Truncation; “ “ = Citation Marks; searches for an exact phrase
Search terms Items found
1. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( post-operative OR postoperative OR post-surg* OR postsurg* OR post-discharge OR postdischarge ) 1 324 298
2. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( care OR aftercare OR "after care" OR after-care OR instruction* OR recommendation* OR manage* OR treat* OR prevent* ) 20 181 248
3. #1 W/3 #2
( TITLE-ABS-KEY ( post-operative OR postoperative OR post-surg* OR postsurg* OR post-discharge OR postdischarge ) ) W/3 ( TITLE-ABS-KEY ( care OR aftercare OR "after care" OR after-care OR instruction* OR recommendation* OR manage* OR treat* OR prevent* ) )		 196 896
4. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( skin OR wound* OR cicatrix OR scar* OR keloid* ) 2 312 463
Study types: systematic reviews and meta-analysis / randomized controlled trials
5. TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( systematic W/2 review ) OR "meta analy*" OR metaanaly* ) AND (EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “le”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ed”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “ch”) OR EXCLUDE (DOCTYPE, “cp”))  
Final result
6. 3 AND 4 AND 5 1 015
Page published
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