Annals of emergency medicine
-
Randomized controlled trials govern evidence-based clinical practice, and it is therefore critical that their results be robust. We aim to investigate the fragility of randomized controlled trials in emergency medicine by determining how often significance would be nullified with small changes in outcomes using the fragility index. ⋯ The statistical significance of the results of randomized controlled trials in emergency medicine was often contingent on a small number of events. Until frequentist interpretation of clinical trials is replaced with Bayesian analysis, the fragility index may have utility as a tool to aid clinicians in assessing the robustness of randomized controlled trials in emergency medicine when considered in conjunction with the fragility quotient and other reported metrics.