@Article{info:doi/10.2196/ijmr.9617, author="Martens, Jill and de Jong, Guido and Rovers, Maroeska and Westert, Gert and Bartels, Ronald", title="Importance and Presence of High-Quality Evidence for Clinical Decisions in Neurosurgery: International Survey of Neurosurgeons", journal="Interact J Med Res", year="2018", month="Oct", day="12", volume="7", number="2", pages="e16", keywords="evidence-based medicine; neurosurgery; levels of evidence", abstract="Background: The publication rate of neurosurgical guidelines has increased tremendously over the past decade; however, only a small proportion of clinical decisions appear to be based on high-quality evidence. Objective: The aim was to evaluate the evidence available within neurosurgery and its value within clinical practice according to neurosurgeons. Methods: A Web-based survey was sent to 2552 neurosurgeons, who were members of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies. Results: The response rate to the survey was 6.78{\%} (173/2552). According to 48.6{\%} (84/173) of the respondents, neurosurgery clinical practices are based on less evidence than other medical specialties and not enough high-quality evidence is available; however, 84.4{\%} (146/173) of the respondents believed neurosurgery is amenable to evidence. Of the respondents, 59.0{\%} (102/173) considered the neurosurgical guidelines in their hospital to be based on high-quality evidence, most of whom considered their own treatments to be based on high-quality (level I and/or level II) data (84.3{\%}, 86/102; significantly more than for the neurosurgeons who did not consider the hospital guidelines to be based on high-quality evidence: 55{\%}, 12/22; P<.001). Also, more neurosurgeons with formal training believed they could understand, criticize, and interpret statistical outcomes presented in journals than those without formal training (93{\%}, 56/60 and 68{\%}, 57/84 respectively; P<.001). Conclusions: According to the respondents, neurosurgery is based on high-quality evidence less often than other medical specialties. The results of the survey indicate that formal training in evidence-based medicine would enable neurosurgeons to better understand, criticize, and interpret statistical outcomes presented in journals. ", issn="1929-073X", doi="10.2196/ijmr.9617", url="http://www.i-jmr.org/2018/2/e16/", url="https://doi.org/10.2196/ijmr.9617", url="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30314961" }