Evidence Map

Living Evidence Map of Pancreatic Surgery

Start Here How It Works

Articles screened

Randomised-controlled trials

Ongoing Trials

Systematic Reviews

Living Meta-Analyses

Evidence at a glance for surgeons, researchers and patients

Up-To-Date Overview

a systematic and living evidence map of pancreatic surgery

Systematic Literature Search

all randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews on pancreatic surgery

Living Meta-analysis

of pancreas-surgery specific outcomes was performed

Uncover Evidence Gaps

base your research priorities on uncovered evidence gaps

Use Evidence Map

for your own research project

Future Maps

We believe that Evidence Maps in the presented form constitute a new tool for evidence-based medicine. It is planed to develop more evidence maps step by step for different medical areas. We believe that patients, researchers, clinicians and funding bodies will profit from these maps. To create the current map we developed a tailored software to manage the large amount of study data and process data for meta-analyses and presentation. At the moment the following evidence maps are planned: Pancreatic Cancer, Upper GI Surgery, Upper GI Cancer, Liver Surgery, Malignant tumors of the liver, Colorectal Surgery, Colorectal Cancer, Obesity Surgery, Hernia Surgery and Transplantation Surgery.

This project is all about working together and creating synergy. Do you have an idea for a future map please contact us to realise your evidence map!

How It Works

and explore the newest evidence

Explore the Map

and find uncovered evidence gaps.

Use the Information

for your own research projects.

Evidence Map of Pancreatic Surgery

Pancreatic surgery is a large and complex field of research. An overview on existing knowledge is needed to uncover evidence gaps and prioritise future research. The aim of this project was to create a systematic and living evidence map of pancreatic surgery.

Through a systematic literature search on PubMed, CENTRAL and Web of Science all randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews on pancreatic surgery were located. Outcomes from every randomised controlled trials were extracted and trial quality was assessed. Systematic reviews were used to identify lack of high-quality trials. Randomised controlled trials and systematic reviews on identical subjects were grouped in research topics. The research topics are presented in the format of a mind map. A meta-analysis of pancreas-surgery specific outcomes was performed in all research topics with more than three RCTs. The evidence map is constantly up-to-date.

The freely accessible Evidence Map of Pancreatic Surgery provides a constantly updated overview of the available literature in an intuitive fashion. Clinical decision-making is supported by the primary data provided as well as the included living meta-analyses. Researchers can use the systematic literature search and extracted data for their own projects. Funding bodies can base their research priorities on the uncovered evidence gaps.


Through thematic links the evidence map leads you from the centre(Pancreatic Surgery) to the available evidence grouped in research topics. For every research topic the available RCT and SR are presented and if more than four RCT are available a living meta-analysis is presented.