neurosurgery-literature

name: neurosurgery-literature description: Use when searching for neurosurgery literature, developing PubMed search strategies, identifying MeSH terms, or building systematic search queries. Invoke for literature searching in neurosurgery topics.

Neurosurgery Literature Search Skill

This skill guides comprehensive literature searching for neurosurgery systematic reviews.

When to Use

Invoke this skill when the user:

• Needs to search PubMed for studies
• Wants to develop a search strategy
• Asks about MeSH terms for neurosurgery
• Needs Boolean operators help
• Mentions "literature search" or "search strategy"

Neurosurgery MeSH Terms

Subspecialties

Common Procedures

Outcome Measures

Search Strategy Building

Step 1: Define PICO

P (Population): Patients with malignant MCA infarction
I (Intervention): Decompressive craniectomy
C (Comparator): Medical management
O (Outcome): Mortality, functional outcome (mRS)

Step 2: Map Concepts to MeSH + Keywords

Population concept:

"Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery"[MeSH] OR
"malignant MCA infarction"[tiab] OR
"malignant middle cerebral artery"[tiab] OR
"space-occupying cerebral infarction"[tiab]

Intervention concept:

"Decompressive Craniectomy"[MeSH] OR
"decompressive surgery"[tiab] OR
"hemicraniectomy"[tiab] OR
"craniectomy"[tiab]

Step 3: Combine with Boolean

(
  "Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery"[MeSH] OR
  "malignant MCA infarction"[tiab] OR
  "malignant middle cerebral artery"[tiab]
)
AND
(
  "Decompressive Craniectomy"[MeSH] OR
  "decompressive surgery"[tiab] OR
  "hemicraniectomy"[tiab]
)

Step 4: Apply Filters

AND (
  "Randomized Controlled Trial"[pt] OR
  "Controlled Clinical Trial"[pt] OR
  "randomized"[tiab] OR
  "randomised"[tiab]
)
AND "humans"[MeSH]
AND "2000/01/01"[PDAT] : "2024/12/31"[PDAT]

Search Field Tags

Study Design Filters

RCT Filter (Cochrane Highly Sensitive)

randomized controlled trial[pt] OR
controlled clinical trial[pt] OR
randomized[tiab] OR
placebo[tiab] OR
clinical trials as topic[mesh:noexp] OR
randomly[tiab] OR
trial[ti]

Observational Studies Filter

"Cohort Studies"[MeSH] OR
"Case-Control Studies"[MeSH] OR
"retrospective"[tiab] OR
"prospective"[tiab] OR
"observational"[tiab]

Key Neurosurgery Journals

"J Neurosurg"[ta] OR
"Neurosurgery"[ta] OR
"World Neurosurg"[ta] OR
"Acta Neurochir"[ta] OR
"J Neurotrauma"[ta] OR
"Spine"[ta] OR
"Eur Spine J"[ta] OR
"J Neurooncol"[ta] OR
"Neuro Oncol"[ta] OR
"Stroke"[ta] OR
"J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis"[ta]

Example Complete Search

Decompressive Craniectomy for TBI

# Population: Traumatic brain injury
(
  "Craniocerebral Trauma"[MeSH] OR
  "Brain Injuries, Traumatic"[MeSH] OR
  "traumatic brain injury"[tiab] OR
  "TBI"[tiab] OR
  "head injury"[tiab]
)

# Intervention: Decompressive craniectomy
AND (
  "Decompressive Craniectomy"[MeSH] OR
  "decompressive surgery"[tiab] OR
  "craniectomy"[tiab] OR
  "hemicraniectomy"[tiab]
)

# Filters
AND "humans"[MeSH]
AND "2000"[PDAT] : "2024"[PDAT]
AND English[lang]

Using the Search Tool

mcp__neuroresearch__search_pubmed(
    query="decompressive craniectomy AND traumatic brain injury",
    max_results=100,
    date_range="2015:2024"
)

Documentation

Always document:

1. Date of search
2. Database(s) searched
3. Complete search string
4. Number of results
5. Limits applied
6. Grey literature sources (if searched)