Systematic reviews of wound care management: (2). Dressings and topical agents used in the healing of chronic wounds.

Searching The following nineteen electronic databases were searched until October 1997: MEDLINE, CINAHL, ISI Science Citation Index, BIOSIS Previews, the British Diabetic Association Database, CISCOM, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Cochrane Wounds Group register of trials, Current Research in Britain (CRIB), DARE, Dissertation Abstracts, DH-Data, EconLit, EMBASE, Index to Scientific and Technical Proceedings, National Research Register, NHS EED, the Royal College of Nursing Database, and SIGLE. The electronic search was supplemented by a handsearch of 5 specialist wound care journals, 12 conference proceedings, and a search of systematic reviews held on DARE. Additional trials were identified by searching the bibliographies of all retrieved and relevant publications, and by asking an advisory panel of experts in wound management; companies with an interest in wound care were approached for unreported trials. Relevant economic evaluations were identified by adding economic related search terms to those used in the search for clinical trials. Authors of trials published after 1985 were contacted and asked to provide details of any associated economic evaluations.