Search strategy for Ovid MEDLINE, designed as of 2 September 2016
| No | Searches | Results |
| 1 | gynecology/ obstetrics/ thoracic surgery/ Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures/ | 61 687 |
| 2 | laparoscopy/ hand-assisted laparoscopy/ | 69 622 |
| 3 | thoracic surgical procedures/ exp cardiac surgical procedures/ | 195 024 |
| 4 | expGynecologic/obstetric Surgical Procedures/ | 72 904 |
| 5 | Cholecystectomy, Laparoscopic/ | 10 733 |
| 6 | ((gynecolog* or cardiac or cardio* or thoracic or heart or coronary or obstetric* or gynae* or laparoscop* or OBGYN or uter* or vaginal or cervical* or ovarian*) adj5 (surger* or operation* or operate*)).tw,kf. | 153 069 |
| 7 | Herbal Medicine/ | 1629 |
| 8 | ((herb* or plant* or flower* or phyto* or tree or mineral* or botan*) adj5 (treat* or therap* or intervention* or medicin* or remed* or extract* or cure* or oil* or heal*)).tw,kf. | 101 339 |
| 9 | (herbalism or botany or herbology).tw,kf. | 1255 |
| 10 | Phytotherapy/ | 33 568 |
| 11 | (phyto-therap* or phytotherap*).tw,kf. | 1680 |
| 12 | exp Plant Preparations/pd, tu, ad, st [Pharmacology, Therapeutic Use, Administration & Dosage, Standards] | 103 896 |
| 13 | /1–6 [Surgery] | 457 564 |
| 14 | /7–12 [Herbal medicine] | 194 482 |
| 15 | 13 and 14 | 1296 |
| 16 | adult.mp. or middle aged.sh. or age:.tw. | 7 608 507 |
| 17 | 15 and 16 | 470 |