Clinical studies in trauma surgery and orthopedics: read, interpret and implement

This article provides assistance for coping with this problem. A basic understanding of prior and posterior probabilities as well as systematic error (bias) makes it easier to weigh up the benefits and risks, e.g. of a (surgical) intervention compared to a nonsurgical treatment. Randomized controlled trials (RCT, with all modern modifications) deliver undistorted results but in orthopedic and trauma surgery can lead to a heavily selected nonrepresentative sample and the results must be confirmed or refuted by further, independent RCTs. Large-scale observational data (e.g. from registries) can be modelled in a quasi-experimental manner and accompany RCTs in health technology assessment.PMID:34761281 | PMC:PMC8579904 | DOI:10.1007/s00113-021-01101-8

Source: Der Unfallchirurg - November 11, 2021 Category: Orthopaedics Authors: Dirk Stengel Wolf Mutschler Luzi Dubs Stephan Kirschner Tobias Renkawitz Source Type: research