Do Corporate Payments Influence Research Related to the Use of Acellular Dermal Matrices in Breast Surgery?

Abstract

Background: No study has assessed the impact of financial conflicts of interests (COIs) on the reporting of breast reconstruction outcomes with acellular dermal matrix (ADM) in peer-reviewed publications. The authors hypothesized that there is (1) an association between financial COIs and likelihood of studies reporting benefits in using ADM, and (2) inconsistent reporting of financial COIs. Methods: The PubMed database was used to identify articles that reported on the use of ADM in breast surgery in four leading plastic surgery journals from January of 2014 to December of 2019. Financial COIs for authors were determined using the open payments database. Results: Fifty-five articles were included. Twenty-four articles (43.6%) supported use of ADM, 12 (21.8%) did not promote ADM use, and 19 (34.5%) were neutral. Fifty-one studies (92.7%

Discussion: Do Corporate Payments Influence Research Related to the Use of Acellular Dermal Matrices in Breast Surgery?

“…The thrust, hypothesis, of this study 1 was twofold: first, authors who reported positive outcomes with the use of acellular dermal matrix (ADM) would have a positive correlation with the presence of a financial conflict of interest (COI); second, inconsistency of authors self-reporting or disclosure of COIs would be present. The study limited the inclusion to the use of ADM in breast surgery.…”

“…The authors collated the publications from leading plastic surgery journals and developed a receiver operating curve to correlate the likelihood of a report of a positive outcome with the magnitude of the COI. 1 The conclusion could not be more stark, concise, and clear-those who receive corporate payments are substantially more likely to publish a clinical investigation of ADM that demonstrates efficacy.…”

“…Judge for yourself. The study under discussion 1 ascertained that the authors of articles that reported positive outcomes with ADM received $96,000, whereas those with negative or neutral comments received $15,600. The seminal study of Lopez et al, an examination of financial COI and ADM, reported that studies authored by those with COI reported proportionally lower complications than similar studies performed without a COI.…”