How to prepare and manage a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical studies

[摘要] In the 10 years after the 2002 New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) publication of a trial that demonstrated no benefit of arthroscopic versus sham surgery for knee osteoarthritis,1 the procedure paradoxically gained popularity and became the most commonly performed orthopaedic surgery in all countries collecting such data. Subsequent trials that confirmed the findings of the NEJM publication were conducted, published and largely ignored.2 It took a review of the totality of the evidence, published in the BMJ in 2015,3 to show beyond doubt that there was no justification for such practice. It is alarming to consider the quantity of medical resources wasted during this period, how they could have been better allocated and the number of inadvertent complications that occurred as a result of this practice.

[学科分类] 神经科学

[关键词] ystematic review;meta-analysis;review;orthopaedics