Costing vascular surgery: A review of current reporting practice

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the level of reporting in economic studies in the area of peripheral vascular disease. Adequate r eporting of data is necessary to judge the quality of economic studies by m eans of critical appraisal criteria. Methods: A systematic review of the journal literature between 1986 and the first: half of 1997 was undertaken. Studies that have attempted to estimat e the resource consequences of one or more vascular procedure were the focu s of the review. The extent of reporting in each study was assessed by usin g published guidelines. Results: The review identified 30 articles from nine different countries fo r inclusion in the study. Of these, more than half were published in the la st 2% pears of the search period, indicating a recent and rapid growth in e conomic studies in this area. When subjected to the reporting guidelines, t he studies performed rather poorly overall. Conclusions: Although the vascular studies can be criticized for inadequate reporting of economic data, it appears from the limited evidence from else where that inadequate reporting is a problem in other clinical areas. In vi ew of the importance of reporting to the ability to critically assess studi es-and thus separate the "good" from the "bad"-there is a need for reportin g to improve future published studies.