An earlier review specifically investigating patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery demonstrated no postoperative benefit of preoperative education,11 GSK126 although

the included studies were low quality and often omitted clinically meaningful outcomes, such as length of stay or postoperative pulmonary complications. Although the definitions vary widely, postoperative pulmonary complications have been reported to include respiratory infections/pneumonia, respiratory failure and atelectasis.6 A commonly used tool for diagnosing postoperative pulmonary complications is presented in Box 1. Postoperative pulmonary complications are defined as the presence of four or more of the following criteria: • Chest radiograph report of collapse/consolidation Therefore, the research questions for this review were: 1. Does preoperative intervention in people undergoing cardiac surgery selleck compound reduce the time to extubation, the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications,

or the length of stay in ICU or in hospital? This systematic review sought to identify, and where possible meta-analyse, randomised or quasi-randomised trials of preoperative intervention in people undergoing cardiac surgery. The criteria used to determine eligibility of studies for the review are presented in Box 2. Design • Randomised controlled trials (including quasi-randomised) Participants • Adults (≥ 18 years old) Intervention • Preoperative intervention (including anaesthetic clinic or pre-admission clinic) targeted at preventing/reducing postoperative pulmonary complications or hastening recovery of function Outcome measures • Postoperative pulmonary complications CINAHL, Medline (1948 to Present with Daily Update), EMBASE (1980 to 2011), PubMed, Proquest, ISI Web of Science, Expanded oxyclozanide Academic ASAP, Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were searched up to May 24th 2011, inclusively. The search strategy combined terms related to the population (eg, cardiac, coronary, cardiothoracic, open

heart, CABG, preadmission, anaesthetic clinic) with terms for the intervention (eg, physiotherapy, education, exercise, mobilization) and the outcomes (eg, length of stay, postoperative pulmonary complications). The full electronic search strategy for Medline and EMBASE is presented in Appendix 1 (See the eAddenda for Appendix 1). Two reviewers (DS and ES), working independently, assessed papers identified by the search for eligibility. Full-text versions were sought where there was insufficient information in the title or abstract. Data were extracted using a template based on the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group’s data extraction template, the PEDro scale12 and the PRISMA statement.