High Variability in Outcome Reporting Patterns in High-Impact ACL Literature

Area of Science:

• Orthopaedic Surgery
• Sports Medicine
• Clinical Research Methodology

Background:

• Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction is a frequent sports medicine procedure.
• Numerous outcome measures exist, but nonstandardized reporting hinders pooled analysis.
• Variability in outcome reporting patterns in high-impact ACL reconstruction studies was investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To document the variability in outcome reporting patterns.
• To analyze reporting of objective and subjective metrics in ACL reconstruction studies.
• To identify challenges in interpreting and pooling ACL reconstruction research.

Main Methods:

• Review of clinical ACL reconstruction studies in top orthopaedic journals (5-year period).
• Exclusion of biomechanical, basic science, and imaging studies.
• Inclusion of studies with ≥50 patients, totaling 119 studies for review.

Main Results:

• Significant variability in reporting objective and subjective outcomes observed.
• Instrumented laxity reported in most studies, but with diverse methods.
• Range of motion, strength, and complications reported in <50% of studies.
• Return to activity, patient satisfaction, and pain assessment were infrequently reported (24%, 8%, 13%).
• International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), Lysholm, and Tegner scores were most common patient-reported outcomes.

Conclusions:

• High-impact ACL reconstruction studies exhibit substantial variability in outcome reporting.
• This inconsistency poses challenges for result interpretation and meta-analysis.
• Standardization of outcome reporting is needed for ACL reconstruction research.