Characteristics of Randomized Clinical Trials in Surgery From 2008 to 2020: A Systematic Review.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) provide the highest level of evidence to evaluate 2 or more surgical interventions. Surgical RCTs, however, face unique challenges in design and implementation.

Objective

To evaluate the design, conduct, and reporting of contemporary surgical RCTs.

Evidence review

A literature search performed in the 2 journals with the highest impact factor in general medicine as well as 6 key surgical specialties was conducted to identify RCTs published between 2008 and 2020. All RCTs describing a surgical intervention in both experimental and control arms were included. The quality of included data was assessed by establishing an a priori protocol containing all the details to extract. Trial characteristics, fragility index, risk of bias

SUBMITTER: Robinson NB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8246313 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature