Statistics in Brief: Evaluating Measures of the Postoperative Event Burden.

Abstract

An estimation of postoperative event rates and survivorship after surgical interventions can be an important part of the informed consent process. However, biased methodology can yield misleading measures of the event burden. Surgeons must critically evaluate reported rates and understand common pitfalls to provide better patient counseling. However, because the methods used in clinical research may be confusing and intimidating, many doctors have difficulty doing so. To try to demystify this important topic, we will discuss alternative approaches to evaluating survivorship and the burden of events by using a hypothetical patient sample to illustrate available methods (Fig. 1A). All figures here use the same patient sample; their visual dissimilarity highlights how different methods handle sample data differently. We also cite real-world studies on ACL reconstruction to show the relative strengths and weaknesses of each technique.