Increase in quality, but not quantity, of clinical trials in acute pain: 1992 versus 2007.
The annual number of published clinical trials in acute postoperative pain in adults has changed little in 15 yr and, as a fraction of all clinical trials published in the six highest impact journals in anesthesiology, has actually decreased from 16% (95% confidence interval: 12-20) to 11% (95% confidence interval: 9-15). However, the methodological quality of reports has improved, with explicit statements on power analysis, allocation concealment, and specification of primary end points exceeding 90% of reports in 2007. There has been a shift in hypothesis interests away from neuraxial analgesia and toward multimodal analgesia.
Department of Anaesthesia, North West Regional Hospital, Burnie, Tasmania, Australia. mark.reeves@dhhs.tas.gov.a
Mark D
MD
Reeves
D000208:Acute Disease; D000698:Analgesia / Q000639:trends*; D015706:Bibliometrics; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000628:therapy*; D010506:Periodicals as Topic / Q000592:standards; D011786:Quality Control; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome