Systematic Reviews of the Literature Are Not Always Either Useful Or the Best Way To Add To Science

Abstract

Systematic reviews are becoming more popular as a way of doing research; however, not all systematic reviews are clinically useful and sometimes another type of review (scoping, topical, or critical) would be of greater value to the clinical and scientific community. The different types of review and their use are described, illustrated by examples relevant to vascular surgery.

Keywords

• Critical review
• Scoping review
• Systematic review
• Topical review