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    The content on this page is not current guidance and is only for the purposes of the consultation process.

    Methods

    NICE identified studies and reviews relevant to removal, preservation and reimplantation of ovarian tissue to restore fertility from the medical literature. The following databases were searched between the date they started to 8 November 2022: MEDLINE, PREMEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library and other databases. Trial registries and the internet were also searched (see the literature search strategy). Relevant published studies identified during consultation or resolution that are published after this date may also be considered for inclusion.

    The following inclusion criteria were applied to the abstracts identified by the literature search.

    • Publication type: clinical studies were included with emphasis on identifying good quality studies. Abstracts were excluded if they did not report clinical outcomes. Reviews, editorials, and laboratory or animal studies, were also excluded and so were conference abstracts, because of the difficulty of appraising study methodology, unless they reported specific adverse events that not available in the published literature.

    • Patients who had OTC for fertility preservation.

    • Intervention or test: OTT to restore fertility.

    • Outcome: articles were retrieved if the abstract contained information relevant to the safety, efficacy, or both.

    If selection criteria could not be determined from the abstracts the full paper was retrieved.

    Potentially relevant studies not included in the main evidence summary are listed in the section on other relevant studies.

    Find out more about how NICE selects the evidence for the committee.

    Table 4 literature search strategy

    Databases

    Date searched

    Version/files

    MEDLINE (Ovid)

    08/11/2022

    1946 to November 07, 2022

    MEDLINE In-Process (Ovid)

    08/11/2022

    1946 to November 07, 2022

    MEDLINE Epubs ahead of print (Ovid)

    08/11/2022

    1946 to November 07, 2022

    EMBASE (Ovid)

    08/11/2022

    1974 to 2022 November 07

    EMBASE Conference (Ovid)

    08/11/2022

    1974 to 2022 November 07

    Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews – CDSR (Cochrane Library)

    08/11/2022

    Issue 11 of 12, November 2022

    Cochrane Central Database of Controlled Trials – CENTRAL (Cochrane Library)

    08/11/2022

    Issue 10 of 12, October 2022

    International HTA database (INAHTA)

    08/11/2022

    -

    Trial sources searched April 2022

    • Clinicaltrials.gov

    • ISRCTN

    • WHO International Clinical Trials Registry

    Websites searched

    • National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

    • NHS England

    • Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - MAUDE database

    • Australian Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures – Surgical (ASERNIP – S)

    • Australia and New Zealand Horizon Scanning Network (ANZHSN)

    • General internet search

    The following search strategy was used to identify papers in MEDLINE. A similar strategy was used to identify papers in other databases.

    1 Cryopreservation/

    2 Tissue Preservation/

    3 Tissue Transplantation/ or Transplants/

    4 or/1-3

    5 Ovary/

    6 Ovary/tr [Transplantation]

    7 Ovary.tw.

    8 or/5-7

    9 4 and 8

    10 (ovar* adj4 tissue* adj4 (transplant* or graft* or preserv* or reimplant* or re-implant* or freez* or frozen or cryopreserv* or cryofixat* or "cryonic suspen*")).tw.

    11 (OTC or OTT or OTCT).tw.

    12 9 or 10 or 11

    13 infertility/ or infertility, female/

    14 infertilit*.tw.

    15 Ovary/de, re [Drug Effects, Radiation Effects]

    16 (subfertili* or sub-fertil*).tw.

    17 (Ovar* adj4 (damage* or fail* or fertil* or infert* or subfert* or sub-fert*)).tw.

    18 or/13-17

    19 12 and 18

    20 animals/ not humans/

    21 19 not 20

    22 limit 21 to english language

    23 Fertility Preservation/

    24 (Fertil* adj4 (preservat* or keep* or gaurd* or stor*)).tw.

    25 18 or 23 or 24

    26 12 and 25

    27 animals/ not humans/

    28 26 not 27

    29 limit 28 to english language

    30 29 not 22