COPYRIGHT © 2001 BY THE JOURNAL OF BONE AND JOINT SURGERY, INCORPORATED Current Concepts Review User’s Guide to the Orthopaedic Literature: How to Use an Article About a Surgical Therapy

➤ We suggest a three-step approach when using an article from the surgical literature to guide your patient care: (1) assess whether the study can provide valid results, (2) review the results, and (3) consider how the results might be applied to your patient. ➤ Randomization, concealment, intention-to-treat analysis, similarity of patients for known prognostic factors, blinding of patients and outcome assessors, and completeness of follow-up are important guides to study validity. ➤ The 95 % confidence interval around the treatment effect is a measure of precision. ➤ Consider whether all of the clinically important outcomes were reported and whether the likely benefits of treat-ment outweigh the potential harm and costs. Clinical Scenario ou are an orthopaedic surgeon who is called to the emer-gency department to evaluate and treat a fifty-five-year-old woman with a displaced fracture of the distal aspect of the right radius. She tells you that she fell on her outstretched right hand after slipping on the kitchen floor. Her medication