Inclusion and Exclusion
The search was refined by exclusion of any articles not written in
English and any studies of paediatric patients. A timeframe of 2006-2020
was set to ensure that the reviewed evidence is relevant to current
practice. After removal of duplicates and exclusion of papers that are
not relevant because the participants were not adults and had not had
cardiac surgery, this resulted in 12 papers (see appendix) for inclusion
in the review.