Guidelines on How to Perform a Systematic Review in Spine Surgery

Primary literature can be contradictory due to a multitude of factors, including poorly designed studies, error types, and confounding factors, and thus literature reviews can be difficult and time-consuming. Systematic reviews are designed to provide unbiased and comprehensive comparisons of relevant primary studies. This method is considered superior to traditional literature reviews due to the unbiased consideration of a broad number of sources rather than a limited literature review. This article will provide guidance for performing a systematic review, including framing a question, selecting studies with inclusion and exclusion criteria, evaluating primary literature, and explaining analysis types.