Effectiveness of interventions based on implantable devices: meta-analyses or systematic reviews that fail to indicate which device brands were used.

We recently surveyed the literature on the effectiveness of three classes of implantable devices: (1) stents for carotid artery stenosis, (2) endovascular clips or coils for unruptured intracranial aneurysms and (3) prostheses for endovascular treatment of ruptured abdominal aneurysms. These three device-based interventions were selected because, at our Regional Health System, we were requested to undertake a series of competitive tenders for the procurement of these devices. To synthetise the clinical literature on these topics, we adopted the empirical criterion of identifying—by expert consensus—the ‘best’ single meta-analysis …