3 Your Question

Situation:

For the purpose of this tutorial, let’s say you’ve been asked to review the existing literature about topical application of celebrex/celecoxib to treat or prevent scar formation.

PubMed Search:

You, like many healthcare professionals and students, are used to searching PubMed so you begin your search for relevant journal articles in PubMed. You quickly construct the following MeSH-based search of PubMed:

“Celecoxib”[Mesh] AND “Administration, Topical”[Mesh] AND “Cicatrix”[Mesh]

Click on the link (the search strategy)  and, if necessary, pull the new tab or window onto your working window to see the results of this search.  (You will have a chance to review the process of constructing a PubMed MeSH search during the next tutorial.)

As of January 2023, this search retrieved just one result. When results of a drug-related search are less abundant than hoped, an EMBASE search is worth a try.