Reporting guidelines for surgical technique could be improved: a scoping review and a call for action

• Published in: Journal of clinical epidemiology Vol. 155; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Shi, Qianling, Ma, Yanfang, Zhang, Xianzhuo, Jiao, Panpan, Zhang, Kaiping, Barchi, Leandro Cardoso, Bedetti, Benedetta, Wu, Jinlin, Wei, Benjamin, Ng, Calvin S.H., Toker, Alper, Shen, Jianfei, Fruscio, Robert, Gilbert, Sebastien, Petersen, Rene Horsleben, Hochwald, Steven, Štupnik, Tomaž, Elkhayat, Hussein, Scarci, Marco, Levi Sandri, Giovanni Battista, Abu Akar, Firas, Waseda, Ryuichi, Sihoe, Alan D.L., Fiorelli, Alfonso, Gonzalez, Michel, Davoli, Fabio, Li, Grace S., Tang, Xueqin, Qiu, Bin, Wang, Stephen D., Chen, Yaolong, Gao, Shugeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.03.2023; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Delphi method; Digital systems; Epidemiology; Guidelines; Libraries; Literature reviews; methodology; quality control; reporting guideline; scoping review; Search engines; Surgery; surgical technique; Surgical techniques; Systematic review; reporting guideline; surgical technique; quality control; Surgery; methodology; scoping review
• ISSN: 0895-4356; 1878-5921
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.11.012

To identify reporting guidelines related to surgical technique and propose recommendations for areas that require improvement. A protocol-guided scoping review was conducted. A literature search of MEDLINE, the EQUATOR Network Library, Google Scholar, and Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations was conducted to identify surgical technique reporting guidelines published up to December 31, 2021. We finally included 55 surgical technique reporting guidelines, vascular surgery (n = 18, 32.7%) was the most common among the clinical specialties covered. The included guidelines generally showed a low degree of international and multidisciplinary cooperation. Few guidelines provided a detailed development process (n = 14, 25.5%), conducted a systematic literature review (n = 13, 23.6%), used the Delphi method (n = 4, 7.3%), or described post-publication strategy (n = 6, 10.9%). The vast majority guidelines focused on the reporting of intraoperative period (n = 50, 90.9%). However, of the guidelines requiring detailed descriptions of surgical technique methodology (n = 43, 78.2%), most failed to provide guidance on what constitutes an adequate description. Our study demonstrates significant deficiencies in the development methodology and practicality of reporting guidelines for surgical technique. A standardized reporting guideline that is developed rigorously and focuses on details of surgical technique may serve as a necessary impetus for change. •Many surgical technique reporting guidelines have been published covering a broad spectrum of clinical specialties.•The development methodology of guidelines that assist with the reporting of surgical technique could be improved.•The level of detailed description that current guidelines require to make the surgical technique more reproducible is low.