Comparison of arthroplasty trial publications after registration in ClinicalTrials.gov

In 2005, the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors established a mandatory trial registration before study enrollment for publication in member journals. Our primary objective was to evaluate the publication rates of arthroplasty trials registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (CTG). We further aimed to examine the consistency of registration summaries with that of final publications. We searched CTG for all trials related to joint arthroplasty and conducted a thorough search for publications resulting from registered closed trials. Of 101 closed and completed trials, we found 23 publications, for an overall publication rate of 22.8%. Registration of arthroplasty trials in CTG does not consistently result in publication or disclosure of results. In addition, changes are frequently made to the final presentation of the data that are not reflected in the trial registry.