Proximity Operators
Proximity operators let you search for words or phrases at any specified distance from each other.
NEAR/n
This requests terms which are within 'n' words of each other, in either direction.
cardiac near/5 catheter retrieves:
"Despite complicated cardiac anatomy, catheter ablation of AT..."?
"... patients undergoing catheter ablation for cardiac arrhythmias ..."?
"...a continuous thermodilution cardiac output pulmonary artery catheter."?
NEXT/n
This requests terms which are within 'n' words of each other in the order specified.
hip next/3 prosthesis retrieves:
"... rheumatoid arthritis, joint surgery, hip or knee prosthesis ..."?
"metal on metal hip resurfacing, prosthesis failure (complication, diagnosis)..."?
Notes:
The proximity operators NEAR and NEXT can be used with parentheses, truncation and field limits, for example: (symptom* NEAR/5 (headache* OR ‘head ache’)):TI,AB
(symptom* NEAR/5 (headache* OR ‘head ache’)):TI,AB
Do not use quotation marks to enclose a query that uses proximity operators. Do include them, however, if one of your concepts is a multi-word phrase.
‘hip near/3 prosthesis’ yields 0 hits
but
‘acetylsalicylic acid’ near/6 ischemia is a valid search
You can specify proximity for any number of intervening words. However, a large number can significantly reduce the relevance of your retrieval, since the connected words can appear in separate sentences and may have little to do with each other. Therefore, use proximity operators judiciously.