Issues in the Hierarchy of Study Design, Hypothesis Testing, and Presentation of Results

Summary: Although evidence-based orthopaedics is sometimes perceived as a strict adherence to information obtained from randomized trials, it more accurately involves informed and effective use of all types of clinical evidence. However, any study that compares 2 or more treatments (ie, comparative study: randomized trial, observational study with control group, case–control) can be subject to the following errors in hypothesis testing: 1) A …