Evidence-Based Surgery

1. Diagnostic Studies in Surgery

   • Stuart Archibald, Jessica Murphy, Achilles Thoma, Charles H. Goldsmith

   Pages 201-215

2. How to Assess a Prognostic Study

   • Saurabh Gupta, Kevin Kim, Emilie Belley-Côté, Richard P. Whitlock

   Pages 217-223

3. Decision Analysis and Surgery

   • Gloria M. Rockwell, Jessica Murphy

   Pages 225-238

4. Economic Evaluations in Surgery

   • Achilles Thoma, Feng Xie, Jenny Santos, Charles H. Goldsmith

   Pages 239-253

5. Studies Reporting Harm in Surgery

   • Robin McLeod

   Pages 255-263

6. Evaluating Surveys and Questionnaires in Surgical Research

   • Brian Hyosuk Chin, Christopher J. Coroneos

   Pages 265-275

7. Opinion Pieces in Surgery

   • M. Torchia, D. Austin, I. L. Gitajn

   Pages 277-284

8. Simple Statistical Tests and P Values

   • Charles H. Goldsmith, Eric K. Duku, Achilles Thoma, Jessica Murphy

   Pages 285-299

9. Confidence Intervals

   • Jessica Bogach, Lawrence Mbuagbaw, Margherita O. Cadeddu

   Pages 301-309

10. Power and Sample Size

    • Jessica Murphy, Eric K. Duku, Achilles Thoma, Charles H. Goldsmith

    Pages 311-325

11. Subgroup Analyses in Surgery

    • Alexandra Hatchell, Sophocles H. Voineskos

    Pages 327-336

12. Introduction to Clinical Practice Guidelines

    • Christopher J. Coroneos, Stavros A. Antoniou, Ivan D. Florez, Melissa C. Brouwers

    Pages 337-345

13. Back Matter

    Pages 347-360

    PDF

The purpose of this book specifically is to teach surgeons (academic or community), surgical fellows and surgical residents regardless of the surgical specialty, the skills to appraise what they read in the surgical literature.  Surgeons need to be able to understand what they read before applying the conclusions of a surgical article to their practice.  As most surgeons do not have the extra training in health research methodology, understanding how the research was done, how to interpret the results and finally deciding to apply them to the patient level is indeed a difficult task.
 
Chapters explain the methodological issues pertaining to the various study designs reported in the surgical literature.  Most chapters begin with a clinical scenario with uncertain course of action with which most surgeons are struggling.  Readers are taught how to search the literature for the best evidence that will answer the surgical problem under discussion. An identified article that seems relevant to the problem you are investigating can be appraised by addressing 3 key questions: 1). Is the study I am reading valid? 2). What are the results of this study? 3). Can I apply these results to my patients?
 
While the primary goal of Evidence-Based Surgery is to teach surgeons how to appraise the surgical literature, an added benefit is that the concepts explained here may help research-minded surgeons produce higher quality research.

• EBS
• Outcome Measures
• Surgical Interventions
• Cohort Studies
• Randomized Controlled Trials
• Confounding and Interactions

• Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (HEI), McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

  Achilles Thoma

• Department of Surgery, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (HEI), McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

  Sheila Sprague

• Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

  Sophocles H. Voineskos

• Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (HEI), McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

  Charles H. Goldsmith

Achilles Thoma
Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery
Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (HEI)
McMaster University 
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
 
Sheila Sprague,
Department of Surgery, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery
Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (HEI)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
 
Sophocles H. Voineskos
Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic Surgery
McMaster UniversityHamilton, Ontario, Canada


Charlie H. Goldsmith
Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact (HEI)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine,
The University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC, Canada

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