Quality of life after obesity surgery, an evidence-based medicine literature review: how to improve systematic searches for enhanced decision-making and clinical outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Research attests to the exponential sweep of clinical obesity in America. Obesity has become one of the most profound public health concerns, closely linked to increased morbidity, mortality, and social, occupational, and psychological discrimination. It is incumbent for specialists to design treatment and outcome analysis based accurately upon systematic research. Regulators, payors, and most notably, patients, need reliable and effective treatment to determine practical standards, manage cost of care, and protocols.
METHODS: A comprehensive evidence-based medicine (EBM) review was done of relevant research on quality-of-life (QoL) outcomes after obesity surgery. The Cochrane Collaboration was the EBM searching resource utilized for this project, accessed via the Internet. A systematic EBM search design was implemented.
RESULTS: In the search, QoL reported 3,234 hits, "obesity surgery" reported 33 hits, QoL and obesity surgery" reported 6 hits, and QoL and hypertension reported 288 hits.
CONCLUSION: We found that a thorough EBM search can be achieved using the Cochrane Collaboration, which provides an efficient, effective and ethical means to enhance evidence-based clinical decision-making in treating severely obese surgery patients.