37 2 Mobile applications in gastrointestinal surgery: a systematic review RESULTS In total, 477 studies were screened for eligibility based on their title and abstract. After a full-text assessment, 38 studies were included of which 29 apps were described (Fig. 1). Patients were targeted as users in all apps except in three apps which were used by surgeons.45,48,53 The apps were classified into seven categories: monitoring, weight loss, postoperative recovery, education, communication, prognosis, and clinical decisionmaking. The majority of the studies focused on colorectal surgery and monitoring (Fig. 2). An overview of the study’s characteristics is presented in Table 1. Due to the heterogeneity of the study designs and apps, a meta-analysis was impeded. In total, seven randomized control trials and seven comparative cohort studies were included. Only four studies had an overall low risk of bias as summarized in Tables 2, 3.33,38,42,53 Figure 1: The PRISMA flow diagram
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