Providing adequate and practical descriptions in surgical trials

Cook and colleagues highlight that descriptions of non-pharmacological interventions in randomised controlled trials are inadequate.1 Although reporting standards need to be improved, the level of information they suggest may not always be necessary.

Surgical interventions are complex, comprising many components that are delivered with multiple concomitant interventions (such as anaesthesia and postoperative care), so it may be impractical to control them all. Individual surgeons …