The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume
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J Bone Joint Surg Am · Mar 2016
Comparative StudyComparison of Registered and Published Primary Outcomes in Randomized Controlled Trials of Orthopaedic Surgical Interventions.
The selective reporting of a subset of the outcomes that had been originally reported to a registry is a potential threat to the validity of evidence-based medicine. The extent of selective reporting has not been described for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) assessing the effectiveness of orthopaedic surgical interventions. The objective of this study was (1) to determine the percentage of orthopaedic surgical RCTs published in high-impact orthopaedic journals that were reported to have been registered, (2) to evaluate the consistency between the primary outcome measures recorded in the registry and those reported in the article, and (3) to evaluate whether selective reporting favored statistically significant outcomes. ⋯ Although trial registration is now the rule, it is currently far from optimal for orthopaedic surgical RCTs, and selective outcome reporting is prevalent. Full involvement of authors, editors, and reviewers is necessary to ensure publication of quality, unbiased results.
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J Bone Joint Surg Am · Mar 2016
Comparative StudyOrthopaedics and the Physician Payments Sunshine Act: An Examination of Payments to U.S. Orthopaedic Surgeons in the Open Payments Database.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released the Open Payments database (OPD) detailing payments from industry to physicians and teaching hospitals. We seek here to provide an overview of the data with a focus on the orthopaedic community. ⋯ Financial interactions between orthopaedic surgeons and industry are highly prevalent. A small subset of orthopaedic surgeons received large royalties, which accounted for a majority of the transactional value provided by industry. Orthopaedic surgeons were the recipients of more payments for travel and for royalties than all other specialties except neurological surgery; however, the median value of these and other payments was similar to that for other specialties.
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J Bone Joint Surg Am · Mar 2016
Effect of a Cast on Short-Term Reproducibility and Bone Parameters Obtained from HR-pQCT Measurements at the Distal End of the Radius.
High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) is a promising tool to assess the fracture-healing process at the microscale in vivo. Since casts are often used during fracture treatment, they might affect the assessment of bone density, microarchitectural, and biomechanical parameters and the short-term reproducibility of those parameters, e.g., as a result of beam-hardening. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a plaster-of-Paris and/or fiberglass cast on bone parameters and on the short-term reproducibility of the HR-pQCT measurements of those parameters. ⋯ A plaster-of-Paris cast has a considerable effect on HR-pQCT measurements. A fiberglass cast only marginally affects the bone parameters, and the short-term reproducibility of HR-pQCT measurements in patients with a fiberglass cast is comparable with that in patients without a cast. In studies on fracture-healing using HR-pQCT, a fiberglass cast is desirable if immobilization is indicated. The use of a plaster-of-Paris cast should be avoided if possible; however, if not avoidable, corrections after the scan are desirable to adjust for the error introduced in the bone parameters.