Editorial: CORR® Criteria for Reporting Meta-analyses

Excerpt

Meta-analyses and systematic reviews provide ways of synthesizing literature to clarify issues on which there is controversy or to confirm generally held views. They are used increasingly in orthopaedic surgery and other fields: a PubMed search of orthopaedic meta-analyses using “(orthopaedic[ad] OR orthopedic[ad]) AND meta-analysis[ti]” yielded 145 articles, 104 of which were published since 2008. The quality of these reviews has varied greatly. Because of the varying quality of review articles, numerous groups have established criteria to aid standardized methods of reporting. In 1999, a working group of 30 clinicians, epidemiologists, statisticians, and other methodologists [2] proposed an approach to enhance meta-analyses based on randomized controlled trials. They suggested authors develop a flow diagram describing the methods of identifying and selecting articles, and then complete a checklist of 21 items from the individual studies that should be included in a meta-analysis. They referred to their process by the name, “Quality of Reporting of Meta-analyses” or “QUOROM.” A working group of 29 participants updated their suggestions in 2009 and renamed the standards, “Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses” or “PRISMA” [3]. …