Q: Which approach is more appropriate for my systematic review dissertation: chronological or thematic?
I am doing a systematic review of literature about the volume of fluid resuscitation in acute kidney injury in ICU patients, should I go with an approach of stating the evolution of this concept (volume of fluid resuscitation and management in acute kidney injury) or hitting at more areas relevant to the concept for example, stage of acute kidney injury, causes, stages and novel treatments, etc .
Generally speaking, narrative literature reviews can be of two types: chronological and thematic. Systematic reviews are however, mostly thematic as these are based on a protocol and involve analyzing existing literature on the basis of specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. A systematic review deals with a specific research question and the data extracted from existing literature is analyzed to address the research question. A thematic approach would therefore make more sense as it would highlight the key progresses in each aspect of the topic and help answer the research question in a more organized manner.
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