Evidence in sports orthopedics: Evidence-based medicine in practice

Abstract

To ensure optimal health care for patients, evidence-based medicine determines the best available evidence from studies, which can be used by doctors when making decisions for individual patients. Due to the rapid development of medical research, with more than 3 million articles published each year, it is impossible for a single person to constantly stay up to date on current medical research findings. Systematic reviews summarize the results of multiple studies, assess the methodological quality, and ascertain the relevance of the results for clinical practice.This article summarizes the concepts of evidence-based medicine, methodical aspects of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and enables the reader to critically assess results of systematic reviews. © 2012 .