Begin with a well-focused research question, which you may often have to create from a clinical scenario.
QUESTION: In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, is amiodarone more effective than beta blockers in preventing arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillations?
What are the main TERMS in this question?
cardiac surgery / amidarone / beta blockers / arrythmias
Cardiac surgery, as well as heart surgery, maps to both thoracic surgery and cardiac surgical procedures--which is too broad. Go to the MeSH Database or check details and pick out cardiac surgical procedures to search on.
Synonyms are words that mean the same thing or are closely related to your main search terms. They can help expand your search.
cardiac surgery | amiodarone | beta blockers | arrhythmias |
heart surgery | drug therapy | adrenergic beta-antagonists | atrial fibrillation |
thoracic surgery |
benzofurans | beta blockers | tachycardia |
cardiac surgery | bradycardia |