Systematic Literature Review Critical Appraisal

Running head: NUR6900 ASSESSMENT 3
SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW CRITICAL APPRAISAL
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1NUR6900 ASSESSMENT 3
Systematic review is a specific type of literature review, in which depending on a
specific research question, a set of research articles and collected and then critically appraises
all the research studies so that effective result could be achieved (Moher et al., 2015). This
paper would also appraise one such systematic review paper and it is aspect, the Joanna-
Briggs systematic review critical appraisal tool would be used so that accurate critique could
be included in the paper,
Chosen paper: (Milinis et al., 2018)
Presence of review question in the paper
As per Milinis et al. (2018), the primary aim of the paper was to identify the benefits
of Graduation Compression Stockings (GCS) in combination with pharmacologic
thromboprophylaxis in reducing the risk of venous thromboembolism among the surgical
patients. This was selected as a research question or the primary aim of the study as Milinis et
al. (2018) mentions that due to the lack of research about this concept, the strategy using
which it prevents healthcare complications among the surgical patients. Further, it was
mentioned that 21% of the surgical patients were suffering from venous thromboembolism
and 43% cases of post-operative cases were found. Hence, the research question and aim of
the paper was explicitly stated.
Appropriate ness of the inclusion criteria
In the inclusion criteria of the paper, patients with minimum 21 days of
thromboprophylaxis, presence of drugs such as oral anticoagulants, documented use of GCS
and confirmed VTE through the application of medical imagining technique. Besides this, the
patients that were included in the study were above the age of 18. Finally, the patients that
were involved in the research were abdominal or orthopaedic surgery. Hence, the inclusion
criteria for the systematic review was associated with the review question. Further, it was

2NUR6900 ASSESSMENT 3
seen that the papers that were found after application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria,
were appropriate for answering the research question.
Search strategy
The search strategy for this research paper was conducted in the research articles such
as MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases and in these
databases, application of keywords, with permutation and combination using Boolean
operators. The paper mentioned in a clear PRISMA diagram the way the exclusion and
exclusion criteria helped the researches to refine the search and sieve through 19 research
articles for this systematic review. Further, it was also included that full text articles and the
Randomized control trail was given priority due to its high level of evidence mentioned by
Milinis et al. (2018). Therefore, the search strategy was appropriate for the study.
Adequacy of the source and resources
The sources and resources included in the search strategy were appropriate for the
study as all the 19 articles were full text and randomized control trails due to which the
evidence of level increased and hence reliability of the paper enhanced. Further, the articles
with abstract, presence of short pharmacological thromboprophylaxis or improper description
and data analysis were eliminated from the process. Hence, through the application of the
search strategy, the paper included relevant sources to answer the research questions.
Appropriateness of the critical appraisal of the papers
The appropriateness of the cortical appraisal of the papers could be understood from
the fact that the paper included meta-analysis guidelines that has been published in the
PROSPERO databases and hence, the critical appraisal of each of the paper included in the
systematic review was conducted. Further, it is mentioned in the paper that to remove the bias
present in the research articles, the researchers implemented the e Cochrane Risk of Bias