Reporting guidelines for surgical technique could be improved: a scoping review and a call for action

Qianling Shi, Yanfang Ma, Xianzhuo Zhang, Panpan Jiao, Kaiping Zhang, Leandro Cardoso Barchi, Benedetta Bedetti, Jinlin Wu, Benjamin Wei, Calvin S.H. Ng, Alper Toker, Jianfei Shen, Robert Fruscio, Sebastien Gilbert, Rene Horsleben Petersen, Steven Hochwald, Tomaž Štupnik, Hussein Elkhayat, Marco Scarci, Giovanni Battista Levi SandriFiras Abu Akar, Ryuichi Waseda, Alan D.L. Sihoe, Alfonso Fiorelli, Michel Gonzalez, Fabio Davoli, Grace S. Li, Xueqin Tang, Bin Qiu, Stephen D. Wang, Yaolong Chen*, Shugeng Gao*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Objectives: To identify reporting guidelines related to surgical technique and propose recommendations for areas that require improvement. 

Study Design and Setting: A protocol-guided scoping review was conducted. A literature search of MEDLINE, the EQUATOR Network Library, Google Scholar, and Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations was conducted to identify surgical technique reporting guidelines published up to December 31, 2021. 

Results: We finally included 55 surgical technique reporting guidelines, vascular surgery (n = 18, 32.7%) was the most common among the clinical specialties covered. The included guidelines generally showed a low degree of international and multidisciplinary cooperation. Few guidelines provided a detailed development process (n = 14, 25.5%), conducted a systematic literature review (n = 13, 23.6%), used the Delphi method (n = 4, 7.3%), or described post-publication strategy (n = 6, 10.9%). The vast majority guidelines focused on the reporting of intraoperative period (n = 50, 90.9%). However, of the guidelines requiring detailed descriptions of surgical technique methodology (n = 43, 78.2%), most failed to provide guidance on what constitutes an adequate description. 

Conclusion: Our study demonstrates significant deficiencies in the development methodology and practicality of reporting guidelines for surgical technique. A standardized reporting guideline that is developed rigorously and focuses on details of surgical technique may serve as a necessary impetus for change.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of Clinical Epidemiology
Volume155
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2023

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Epidemiology

User-Defined Keywords

  • Surgery
  • surgical technique
  • reporting guideline
  • methodology
  • quality control
  • scoping review

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