Surgery Information Resources: Search Strategies for PubMed

This page has search strategies created by the surgery librarian for searching PubMed. These strategies can be used alone or combined with other search terms to find relevant literature. However, these strategies have not been formally validated and should not be used for systematic reviews or practice guidelines without first consulting with the librarian. 

PubMed

Focused set of search terms: 

("surgery"[Subheading] OR "surgical procedures, operative"[MeSH] OR "Surgeons"[Mesh] OR surgeons[tiab] OR surgeon[tiab] OR surgery[tiab] OR surgical[tiab] OR surgeries[tiab] OR operative[tiab] OR operation[tiab] OR operations[tiab] OR operating[tiab])

For additional articles, use this broader set of search terms instead:

("surgery"[Subheading] OR "surgical procedures, operative"[MeSH] OR "Surgeons"[Mesh] OR surgeons[tiab] OR surgeon[tiab] OR surgery[tiab] OR surgical[tiab] OR surgeries[tiab] OR operative[tiab] OR operation[tiab] OR operations[tiab] OR operating[tiab] OR excision[tw] OR excisions[tw] OR resection[tw] OR resections[tw] OR resect[tw] OR anastomosis[tw] OR transplantation[tw] OR transplantations[tw] OR transplant[tw] OR transplants[tw] OR graft[tw] OR grafts[tw] OR grafting[tw]) OR ("Preoperative Period"[Mesh] OR "Preoperative Care"[Mesh] OR "Perioperative Period"[Mesh] OR "Perioperative Care"[Mesh] OR "Perioperative Medicine"[Mesh] OR "Postoperative Period"[Mesh] OR "Postoperative Care"[Mesh] OR pre-admission[tiab] OR preadmission[tiab] OR pre-procedure[tiab] OR pre-procedural[tiab] OR pre-operative[tiab] OR preoperative[tw] OR peri-operative[tiab] OR perioperative[tw] OR post-operative[tiab] OR postoperative[tw])

PubMed

("COVID-19"[Mesh] OR "SARS-CoV-2"[Mesh] OR "COVID-19 Testing"[Mesh] OR 2019-nCoV[All Fields] OR 2019nCoV[All Fields] OR COVID-19[All Fields] OR COVID-2019[All Fields] OR COVID-19s[All Fields] OR COVID[TiAb] OR COVID*[Ti] OR COVID19[All Fields] OR CoV-19[All Fields] OR SARS-CoV-2[All Fields] OR SARS-COV2[All Fields] OR "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2"[All Fields] OR "COVID-19 Vaccines"[Mesh] OR "Coronavirus Disease 2019"[All Fields] OR (Coronavirus*[All Fields] AND pandemic[All Fields]) OR "COVID-19 Serological Testing"[Mesh] OR "COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Testing"[Mesh] OR "SARS-CoV-2 variants" [Supplementary Concept] OR "spike protein, SARS-CoV-2" [Supplementary Concept] OR "COVID-19 serotherapy" [Supplementary Concept] OR "COVID-19 breakthrough infections" [Supplementary Concept] OR "COVID-19 drug treatment" [Supplementary Concept] OR "SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccines" [Supplementary Concept] OR "COVID-19 stress syndrome" [Supplementary Concept] OR "COVID-19 post-intensive care syndrome" [Supplementary Concept] OR "post-acute COVID-19 syndrome" [Supplementary Concept]) AND 2019:3000[pdat] AND English[lang]