Results of eVALuate study of hysterectomy techniques: Degree of pain cannot be commented on

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7440.642-b

BMJ 2004;328:642 (13 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7440.642-b

Letter

Results of eVALuate study of hysterectomy techniques

Degree of pain cannot be commented on

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The paper by Garry et al promised to be one ofthe first randomised clinical trials of laparoscopic, abdominal,and vaginal hysterectomy.¹ However, the authors did not drawthe correct conclusions because of their poor study design.

The patients were randomised to either the abdominal or thevaginal trial at the start. Both groups underwent hysterectomyunder general anaesthesia. Garry et al did not mention whichanaesthetic agents were used or whether every patient had hadthe same anaesthetic, although different anaesthetics have differentanalgesic properties. They also did not record the names ofthe postoperative parenteral analgesics given, although theycan notably affect postoperative pain scores.

Garry et al did not say how the patients were told to recordtheir pain scores. They simply comment on perceived pain butdo not say how often scores were taken, whether this was themaximum pain experienced, or whether this . . . [Full text of this article]

Stephen M F Saunders, specialist registrar, general surgery

Royal London Hospital smfsaunders@hotmail.com

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

The eVALuate study: two parallel randomised trials, one comparing laparoscopic with abdominal hysterectomy, the other comparing laparoscopic with vaginal hysterectomy: Ray Garry, Jayne Fountain, Su Mason, Jeremy Hawe, Vicky Napp, Jason Abbott, Richard Clayton, Graham Phillips, Mark Whittaker, Richard Lilford, Stephen Bridgman, and Julia Brown
BMJ 2004 328: 129. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]