European journal of pain : EJP
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Meta Analysis
The use of systematic reviews to justify anaesthesiology trials: A meta-epidemiological study.
New randomized clinical trials (RCTs) should be initiated if previous systematic reviews (SRs) indicate that new trials are needed. We analysed whether RCTs published in anaesthesiology journals mentioned previous SRs as a rationale for conducting trial and for discussing results. ⋯ Since less than a fifth of trials published in high-impact journals in the field of anaesthesiology explicitly mention previous systematic review as a justification for conducting the trial, authors, ethics committees, editors and peer-reviewers need to increase their awareness of the need for proper justification regarding the necessity for a new trial.