Searching for rehabilitation articles on MEDLINE and EMBASE. An example with cross-over design

Objective: To analyze the usefulness of MEDLINE and EMBASE biomedical databases in rehabilitation and to identify descriptors and text words necessary to do a comprehensive search. Methods: We looked for articles published since 1990 relating to neurologic, orthopedic, respiratory, urologic, and rheumatologic rehabilitation. We looked for all descriptors and text words pertinent to rehabilitation and linked them with "cross-over.") Results: We found 165 articles in MEDLINE and 159 in EMBASE with an overlap of only 17% of articles. Only 32% of the articles in MEDLINE and 35% in EMBASE were relevant. Of the 214 nonoverlapping articles, 84% were published in journals present in both databases, but were indexed differently. Conclusion: At least two databases must be used to ensure a comprehensive literature search. Searching in EMBASE after MEDLINE we gained 25 articles (32%). Bibliographic search in rehabilitation is particularly complex because of the heterogeneity of the subject matter. Cooperation between an information professional and a clinician is essential to ensure a comprehensive search.