The purpose of this book specifically is to teach surgeons (academic or community) surgical
fellows and surgical residents regardless of the surgical specialty the skills to appraise
what they read in the surgical literature. Surgeons need to be able to understand what they
read before applying the conclusions of a surgical article to their practice. As most surgeons
do not have the extra training in health research methodology understanding how the research
was done how to interpret the results and finally deciding to apply them to the patient level
is indeed a difficult task. Chapters explain the methodological issues pertaining to the
various study designs reported in the surgical literature. Most chapters begin with a clinical
scenario with uncertain course of action with which most surgeons are struggling. Readers are
taught how to search the literature for the best evidence that will answer the surgical problem
under discussion. An identified article that seems relevant to the problem you are
investigating can be appraised by addressing 3 key questions: 1). Is the study I am reading
valid? 2). What are the results of this study? 3). Can I apply these results to my patients?
While the primary goal of Evidence-Based Surgery is to teach surgeons how to appraise the
surgical literature an added benefit is that the concepts explained here may help
research-minded surgeons produce higher quality research.
