Publications by authors named "A J Verbout"
Objectives: The goal of this systematic review was to evaluate if the influence of methodological features on treatment effect differs between types of intervention.
Study Design And Setting: MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane methodology register, and reference lists were searched for meta-epidemiologic studies on the influence of methodological features on treatment effect. Studies analyzing influence of methodological features related to internal validity were included.
Background Context: Systematic reviews of the literature are powerful tools in evidence-based medicine. However, the design and report of systematic reviews in spinal surgery contain many aspects amenable to improvement.
Purpose: To discuss the issues especially relevant for systematic reviews in spinal surgery.
Study Design: Systematic literature review.
Objective: To assess the effect of total disc replacement for chronic low back pain due to lumbar degenerative disc disease compared with fusion or other treatment options.
Summary Of Background Data: There is an increasing use in disc replacement devices for degenerative disc disease, but their effectiveness compared with other interventions such as fusion of the motion segment or conservative treatment remains unclear.
Total disc replacement for chronic back pain in the presence of disc degeneration.
Cochrane Database Syst Rev
September 2012
Article Synopsis
- Total disc replacement (TDR) is evaluated as a surgical option for chronic low-back pain due to disc degeneration, offering potential benefits like preserved mobility and reduced adjacent segment degeneration compared to spinal fusion.
- The systematic review analyzes randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to assess TDR's effectiveness in patient-centered improvement, motion preservation, and adjacent segment degeneration, finding 40 publications detailing seven unique RCTs.
- Results indicate some advantages of TDR over rehabilitation in alleviating pain, though biases exist in the studies due to funding influences and lack of blinding, with a majority showing low risk of bias.
Background Context: Methodological quality measures of trials in meta-analyses have been shown to influence the pooled effect sizes in several medical fields. However, for spinal surgery, influence of quality measures has not been assessed.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the influence of quality measures in studies on effectiveness in spinal surgery.