Methodological quality and redundancy of systematic reviews that compare endarterectomy versus stenting for carotid stenosis

Ref ID 522
First Author J. F. W. Mendoza
Journal BMJ EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE
Year Of Publishing 2019
URL https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31266765/
Keywords • Surgery
• Protocols
• Missing data
• Statistical
• Expertise
• Error
• Low reporting quality
• Searching
• Risk of bias
• Pre-specification
Problem(s) • Errors in study inclusion or omission of relevant studies
• No registered or published protocol
• Insufficient literature searches
• Lack of prespecification in eligibility criteria
• Lack of statistical expertise in handling of quantitative data
• Flawed risk of bias undertaken
• Low methodological (AMSTAR) quality
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country Brazil
Checklists • AMSTAR 2
Aim To assess the methodological quality (using AMSTAR 2) of all published systematic reviews comparing the effectiveness and safety of carotid endarterectomy versus carotid artery stenting for carotid artery stenosis, published between 2005 to 2017.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Overall confidence in the results was graded as critically low for 94% of systematic reviews and low for 6% of systematic reviews. Inadequate methodology related to: reference to a published protocol, explanation of selection of study design, comprehensive search of the literature, methods for statistical combination of findings and consideration of the risk of bias on the results of meta-analysis. Additionally the number of included RCTs in each systematic review was inconsistent (4 to 15) and was not related to the year of publication.
Number of systematic reviews included 17
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 1091
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description