Quantifying the Level of Evidence of Podium Presentations at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons From 2015 to 2019

BACKGROUND: The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) Annual Scientific Meeting is a leading forum for the presentation and dissemination of research regarding the management of hip and knee pathology making research presented at these meetings a representation of the current literature in the field. The purpose of this study was to quantify the level of evidence of podium presentations presented at the AAHKS annual meeting from 2015 to 2019. METHODS: Two reviewers evaluated the abstracts for the available presentations. Basic science and biomechanical studies were excluded from the review. Economic studies that were not able to be evaluated based on the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeon guidelines were also excluded. The two reviewers then independently evaluated each abstract and assigned a level of evidence (level I-V) based on the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeon classification scheme. RESULTS: A total of 258 podium presentations were included. In total, 17 (7%) abstracts were graded level I evidence, 57 (22%) were graded level II, 85 (33%) were graded level III, and 98 (38%) were graded level IV (Table 1). There was a significant change in the distribution of the level of evidence of podium presentations over time (χ² = 24.6, P = .02). The proportion of level I studies has increased between 2015 and 2019 (from 3.9% to 11.8%) with a concomitant decrease in level IV studies (from 42.3% to 21.6%) over that time period. CONCLUSIONS: There has been a significant improvement in the levels of evidence of podium presentations at the AAHKS Annual Meeting from 2015 to 2019.