Literature Search
A literature search for relevant articles was conducted using the two
major databases Scopus and PubMed. The Scopus search strategy was as
follows:
(cardiac OR cardio OR heart OR pericardial OR pericardiotomy OR
intrapericardial) AND adhesion* AND (barrier* OR seprafilm OR gortex OR
”gor-tex” OR polytetrafluoroethylene OR tachosil)
The PubMed search strategy was as follows:
(”Cardiac Surgical Procedures”[Mesh] OR cardiac[ti] OR
cardio[ti] OR ”Heart”[Mesh] OR heart[ti] OR
pericardial[ti] OR pericardiotomy[ti] OR
intrapericardial[ti]) AND (”Tissue Adhesions”[Mesh] OR
adhesion*[tw]) AND (barrier*[tw] OR seprafilm[tw] OR
gortex[tw] OR ”gor-tex”[tw] OR polytetrafluoroethylene[tw]
OR tachosil[tw])
Both databases were searched on November 24, 2020 with no limit for
article dates. Inclusion criteria were clinical studies on human
subjects, and exclusion criteria were case reports and studies published
in a language other than English.
Two reviewers separately performed the initial title and abstract
screening for all articles followed by the full-text review. Specific
reasons were provided for the articles excluded during full-text review.
Conflicts at any stage were resolved by a third reviewer. Of the
resulting full-text articles, any reference(s) of other adhesion
barrier(s) was assessed through a similar title and abstract screening
with subsequent full-text review. The Covidence systematic review
software (Veritas Health Innovation, Melbourne, Australia) was used as
the primary screening and evaluation tool for all reviewers. Risk of
bias in the studies was evaluated by a single reviewer using the
Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool.10