Due to the very low quality of the current evidence , the effects of formal patient education provided in addition to the st and ard information provided by doctors to patients compared with st and ard care remain uncertain .
BACKGROUND Generally , before being operated on , patients will be given informal information by the healthcare providers involved in the care of the patients ( doctors , nurses , ward clerks , or healthcare assistants ) .
This information can also be provided formally in different formats including written information , formal lectures , or audio-visual recorded information .
OBJECTIVES To compare the benefits and harms of formal preoperative patient education for patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy .
Literature searching for randomized controlled trials used in Cochrane reviews: rapid versus exhaustive searches.
OBJECTIVES To analyze sources search ed in Cochrane review s , to determine the proportion of trials included in review s that are indexed in major data bases , and to compare the quality of these trials with those from other sources . METHODS All new systematic review s in the Cochrane Library , Issue1 2001 , that were restricted to r and omized controlled trials ( RCTs ) or quasi- RCTs were selected . The sources search ed in the review s were recorded , and the trials included were checked to see whether they were indexed in four major data bases . Trials not indexed were checked to determine how they could be identified . The quality of trials found in major data bases was compared with those found from other sources . RESULTS The range in the number of data bases search ed per review ranged between one and twenty-seven . The proportion of the trials in the four data bases were Cochrane Controlled Trials Register = 78.5 % , MEDLINE = 68.8 % , Embase = 65.0 % , and Science/Social Sciences Citation Index = 60.7 % . Search ing another twenty-six data bases after Cochrane Controlled Trials Register ( CCTR ) , MEDLINE , and Embase only found 2.4 % additional trials . There was no significant difference between trials found in the CCTR , MEDLINE , and Embase compared with other trials , with respect to adequate allocation concealment or sample size . CONCLUSIONS There was a large variation between review s in the exhaustiveness of the literature search es . CCTR was the single best source of RCTs . Additional data base search ing retrieved only a small percentage of extra trials . Contacting authors and manufacturers to find unpublished trials appeared to be a more effective method of obtaining the additional better quality trials
Due to the very low quality of the current evidence , the effects of formal patient education provided in addition to the st and ard information provided by doctors to patients compared with st and ard care remain uncertain .
BACKGROUND Generally , before being operated on , patients will be given informal information by the healthcare providers involved in the care of the patients ( doctors , nurses , ward clerks , or healthcare assistants ) .
This information can also be provided formally in different formats including written information , formal lectures , or audio-visual recorded information .
OBJECTIVES To compare the benefits and harms of formal preoperative patient education for patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy .