Randomised trials in surgery: problems and possible solutions
BMJPublished 15 June 2002Open access
Peter McCulloch, Irving Taylor, Mitsuru Sasako, Bryony Lovett, Damian Griffin
Citations747
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ObjectiveStudy objective
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TL;DR
The quality and quantity of randomised trials of surgical techniques is acknowledged to be limited, but according to Peter McCulloch and colleagues, however, some aspects of surgery present special difficulties forrandomised trials.
Keywords
Decision SciencesMedicine
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