Use of Clinical Trial Registries in Otolaryngology Systematic Reviews

Abstract

The study design strengthens the validity of these results. The administrative health databases from Ontario are more than 95% complete for cancer diagnosis and procedures. 6 By capturing an entire population, our study was less susceptible to the types of selection biases and confounding that may have influenced other studies.Limitations to this study include the lack of patientspecific clinical information such as results of ultrasonography and pathologic tests. In addition, changes in specimen management and diagnostic criteria over time may have influenced the rate of carcinoma because of more incidentally found microcarcinomas. Although the rate of carcinoma may have increased, these diagnoses are likely predominantly due to a clinically irrelevant entity.Based on a large provincial population followed longterm after initially benign results of thyroid biopsy, the rate of malignant neoplasms was low, which questions the need of follow-up biopsies for all patients. Because cumulative risk of thyroid cancer in these patients is higher than the baseline lifetime risk of the population, further large risk stratification studies incorporating standard ultrasound biopsy data are needed to identify those requiring long-term follow-up.

Clinical Trial Registry Use in Orthopaedic Surgery Systematic Reviews

“…The data that were extracted included the database(s) and the clinical trial registries that were searched in the systematic review/meta-analysis. The design for the cross-sectional analysis was adapted from previous publications 14,15,19,21,23 . Qualified clinical trial registries were identified through the ICMJE list of accepted clinical trial registries.…”