The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume
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J Bone Joint Surg Am · Jan 2010
ReviewTwenty years of meta-analyses in orthopaedic surgery: has quality kept up with quantity?
As the number of studies in the literature is increasing, orthopaedic surgeons highly depend on meta-analyses as their primary source of scientific evidence. The objectives of this review were to assess the scientific quality and number of published meta-analyses on orthopaedics-related topics over time. ⋯ Although the methodological quality of orthopaedic meta-analyses has increased in the past twenty years, a substantial proportion continues to show major to extensive flaws. As the number of published meta-analyses is increasing, a routine checklist for scientific quality should be used in the peer-review process to ensure methodological standards for publication.