Meta-analysis of small randomized controlled trials in surgery may be unreliable
Population
All surgical RCTs included in Cochrane Collaboration systematic reviews
Design
Other
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
Early meta-analyses of small surgical RCTs warrant clinical caution; challenges their reliability for predicting later trial results.
Structured PICO
P
Population
All surgical RCTs included in Cochrane Collaboration systematic reviews
I
Intervention
Meta-analysis of small randomized controlled trials
O
Outcome
Reliability of meta-analysis results to predict subsequent RCT results
Meta-analyses of small, underpowered surgical RCTs may produce unreliable results that do not predict findings of subsequent larger trials.
Cite This Study
Rerkasem et al. (2010) studied this question.