Feasibility of surgical randomised controlled trials with a placebo arm: a systematic review.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To find evidence, either corroborating or refuting, for many persisting beliefs regarding the feasibility of carrying out surgical randomised controlled trials with a placebo arm, with emphasis on the challenges related to recruitment, funding, anaesthesia or blinding.

Design

Systematic review.

Data sources and study selection

The analysis involved studies published between 1959 and 2014 that were identified during an earlier systematic review of benefits and harms of placebo-controlled surgical trials published in 2014.

Results

63 trials were included in the review. The main problem reported in many trials was a very slow recruitment rate, mainly due to the difficulty in finding eligible patients. Existing placebo trials were funded equally often fr

SUBMITTER: Wartolowska K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4800115 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature