The Surgeon’s Guide to Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

High-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses represent the top of the level of evidenceLevels of evidence hierarchy. They offer an efficient way to digest and summarize the body of available literature to facilitate up-to-date, evidence-based clinical practice. This chapter offers surgeons the technique to critically appraiseAppraise systematic reviews and meta-analyses while providing a sample clinical scenario and researchResearch article to work through. Three questions are used to guideGuide surgeons with this appraisalAppraisal: (1) Are the results valid? (2) What are the results? and (3) Can I apply the results to my patients?