Trial Registry Searches in Plastic Surgery Systematic Reviews: A Meta-epidemiological Study

Ref ID 876
First Author G.K. Hughes
Journal JOURNAL OF SURGICAL RESEARCH
Year Of Publishing 2023
URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022480423000689?via%3Dihub
Keywords Cochrane
Surgery
Grey literature
Publication bias
Searching
Non-Cochrane reviews
Journalology/ Publication science
Problem(s) Lack of supplementary searches beyond databases
Grey literature excluded
Number of systematic reviews included 552
Summary of Findings From 552 included systematic reviews in the top five Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journals and Cochrane between December 6, 2016 and December 6, 2021. Only seventeen systematic reviews (3.3%; 17/512) published in the top five plastic surgery journals reported a search of clinical trial registries for unpublished clinical trials compared to 38 studies (95%; 38/40) published in the Cochrane Database of systematic reviews. A secondary analysis showed that 50 out of 100 studies (50%) that could have included at least one registered clinical trial with potentially relevant results on clinicaltrials.gov.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? Not Applicable
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? No