Spin is Prevalent in the Majority of Abstracts of Patello-Femoral Arthroplasty Studies.

Abstract

The purpose of our study was to investigate the prevalence and types of reporting biases in patello-femoral arthroplasty (PFA) studies. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for the term "patello-femoral arthroplasty" using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Articles were included if they were (1) primary research articles, (2) investigating patello-femoral arthroplasties, (3) level of evidence (LOE) 1 to 3, (4) published after 2013, and (5) published in English in a peer-reviewed journal. Articles were excluded if they were systematic reviews or meta-analyses, case reports, not published in English, or if their full text was inaccessible. Abstracts were designated as "positive," "neutral," or "negative" outcomes based on whether they favored PFA. The included abstracts were assessed for the 13 most common types of spin. Fisher's exact tests were used to analyze the relationship between the different spin types and study characteristics. There were 37 articles that met the inclusion criteria; the articles were published between 2015 and 2024. Spin was identified in 22 (59.5%) studies, and nine (69.2%) spin types were identified at least once. Spin types three and 14 were identified most frequently in 10 (27.0%) studies each. The amount of spin in each abstract ranged from none to four spin types. There was no significant association between the presence of spin and journal, LOE, year of publication, funding, or impact factor (P > 0.05). Spin was significantly more likely in studies with "positive" outcomes (P = 0.005). Spin is present in more than 50% of abstracts on PFA studies in the last 10 years. Spin was more prevalent in studies with "positive" outcomes, favorable to PFA.