Systematic reviews and meta-analyses for cardiothoracic surgeons: part 7 - synthesizing evidence

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are powerful tools within the evidence-based framework, with significant utility in cardiothoracic surgery. Systematic reviews represent the gold standard in evidence synthesis and adhere to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, ensuring a reproducible methodology. They include subtypes such as qualitative and mixed-methods reviews, as well as extrapolations like umbrella reviews. A meta-analysis (plural: meta-analyses) is a statistical technique used to synthesize results from multiple studies, providing a more precise and reliable estimate of an effect size. Together, these approaches help inform clinical practice and shape evidence-based guidelines. However, their findings should be interpreted in light of their limitations.