What to call spinal cord damage not due to trauma? Implications for literature searching

Objectives: To illustrate the importance of multiple search terms and databases when searching publications on spinal cord damage not due to trauma. To develop comprehensive search filter for this subject, compare the results for 2000-2009 with the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and Emtree term 'spinal cord diseases' and determine changes in the number of articles over this period. Design: Literature searches and search filter development. Setting: Australia. Interventions: Titles and abstracts searched in MEDLINE and EMBASE (2000-2009) for articles involving humans using search terms 'non-traumatic spinal cord injury' and 'nontraumatic spinal cord injury' (concise search). Develop comprehensive search filter for 'spinal cord damage not due to trauma' and compare the results with the MeSH term 'spinal cord diseases.' Outcome measures: Annual publications (2000-2009) identified in MEDLINE and EMBASE literature searches. Results: Concise search identified 35 articles published during 2000-2009. More publications were identified using the term 'nontraumatic spinal cord injury' (n = 20) than 'non-traumatic spinal cord injury' (n= 16). Publications increased for both terms 'spinal cord diseases' (2000 = 279; 2009 = 415) and 'spinal cord damage not due to trauma' identified by the comprehensive search filter (2000 = 1251; 2009 = 1921). Conclusions: Concise searches using terms 'non-traumatic spinal cord injury' and 'nontraumatic spinal cord injury' fail to identify relevant articles unless combinations of terms and databases are used. These are inadequate search terms for a comprehensive search. Further research is needed to validate our comprehensive search filter. An international consensus process is required to establish an agreed term for 'spinal cord damage not due to trauma.'