[The role of electronic databases in practical decision making in the care of patients with cerebrovascular diseases].

The information revolution of recent years, the general accessibility of computers and especially the Internet, provided the possibility of immediate access to the newest and most reliable results of clinical research in everyday medical practice. When a question arises regarding the care of a certain patient, we can have answers within minutes. Summaries of systematic reviews of the Cochrane Library and abstracts of papers of several thousand journals indexed on MEDLINE are available free of charge. In addition, over 70,000 Internet home pages provide some sort of health care information. The fast accessibility of information made it possible to apply a new method, called evidence-based medicine, in everyday practice. This method implies the effective search of an answer to a well formed question, and the critical evaluation of the results found during the search. This paper summarises the most important electronic databases that can be used in the care of patients with cerebrovascular diseases. The paper emphasises the advantages and dangers of the use of the Internet. Enlisted are the most important English- and Hungarian-language home pages with information on cerebrovascular diseases. Internet addresses of home pages providing methodological help in critically evaluating the literature are also given. The paper summarises the most important questions to consider when we want to evaluate the validity and importance of papers on diagnostic methods, on prognosis, on treatment effect, when we read systematic reviews, economic evaluations, clinical decision analyses and guidelines.