Most clinicians have come to imagine that scientific evidence has levels, and at the top of the
pyramid are randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses [12]. But we all have read …

Trick question: What is the most-robust study design for assessing the efficacy of a medical
or surgical treatment? Give yourself half credit if you guessed the high-quality randomized …

clinical trials (RCTs) represent the best study design for minimizing bias when investigating
the effectiveness of a form of treatment. RCTs also are the building blocks of systematic …

When researchers attempt to answer clinical questions, they must first decide whether to
observe the events taking place in the subjects (observational study) or to introduce an …

Rudolf W Poolman, Beate Hanson*, Rene K Marti**, Mohit Bhandari he number of
prospective randomized trials in proposed randomized controlled trial (RCT). 3 orthopedic …

Surgical research is often maligned. 1 Nevertheless, clear improvements in the surgical
management of disorders of bone and joint have occurred since the advent of evidence …

To the Editor, Recently, we read with great interest the article by Jørgensen et al.[1] entitled
“Predictors associated with nonunion and symptomatic malunion following non-operative …

Rigorous orthopaedic clinical research should not be an oxymoron. The vitality of the
orthopaedic specialty is critically dependent on well-designed and well-conducted clinical …

The use of nationwide databases to conduct orthopaedic research has expanded markedly
in recent years. Nationwide databases offer large sample sizes, sampling of patients who …

Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) generally provide the highest quality and least biased
evidence for treatment effectiveness. Relatively few high-quality RCTs have been published …