Estrategias de búsqueda de información sobre cirugía vascular en Internet

Introduction. Daily clinical care gives rise to a number of questions that need answering quickly and with the best scientific evidence available. The abundance of sources of information means that we have to be very selective and practical. Aims. The aim of this study is to offer some basic knowledge about how to locate online sources of medical information with scientific evidence, and more particularly about subjects related to vascular surgery. Development. When dealing with a clinical question, we should not go directly to PubMed or Google to search for original papers, but instead we ought to access pre-screened sources of information. These are what are called meta-search engines, which are a type of search engines that do not have their own database and, instead, use those of other search engines and show a combination of the best websites. These meta-search engines are Tripdatabase in English and Excelencia Clínica in Spanish. If we are looking for systematic reviews, the Biblioteca Cochrane Plus offers the best database available, although there are other sources such as the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, Clinical Evidence or Bandolier. And if our problem lies in locating clinical practice guidelines, the Internet can provide an impressive source of guidelines that have been validated and endorsed by important centres and which can be freely accessed, such as the North American National Guideline Clearinghouse, the British NICE guidelines or GuíaSalud in Spain. If what we are looking for is to provide our patients with informative websites, the best thing is to recommend the use of MedlinePlus, where they can even find interactive tutorials about vascular operations they might undergo at some stage. Conclusions. The tools described in this article can be useful at certain times and under certain circumstances. It should not be forgotten, however, that clinical proficiency is the key to deciding when this external evidence is applicable to the individual patient and, if this is the case, how it should be integrated within a clinical decision. It is obviously an important and up-to-date work tool. [ANGIOLOGÍA 2009; 61:159-66]